YuGiOh GX: Spirits UnBound
by Rizengan01
Summary: Several years after Jaden's graduation from Duel Academy, new students arrive. But mysterious forces are at work. How will these students deal with the evil forces looming ahead? It'll take more than a children's card game to save the world this time...
1. Preliminary Exams, Exciting New Twist!

_**Author's note: Hello everyone. Long time no see. This is the first in a long list of revised chapters. The difference isn't very big, but I felt it would help the chapter flow more smoothly.**_

_**Well, without further adieu, enjoy the chapter.**_

_**YuGiOh GX: SPIRITS UNBOUND**_

_**Chapter 1: Preliminary Exams, And Exciting New Twist!**_

* * *

…_They were rivals. That much was for sure. But no one really knew how deep their rivalry ran…at least 'til now._

_They stood only about 30 feet apart as they stared bullets into the others' soul._

_They each had a legion of monsters standing in front of them, but the smaller boy had more than the taller. He had three dragons and two men standing in front of him while the other boy had two mere robots in defensive positions. He also had what appeared to be a large brown card floating parallel to the floor._

_Then, silently, the largest dragon flew towards the smaller of the two robots, apparently ready to strike…_

_But the brown card slowly arose, and from it came a shield…a shield that not only stopped the large dragon in its tracks, but it also shone such a bright light that all seven of the creatures were blown back until there was not a single one left._

_The two boys stood there staring at each other for a long time, waves of energy emanating from both of them until the smaller boy; the one who had the 5 creatures; fell over…_

* * *

…_1 year later…_

It was early summer in Duel Academy, and the current students were all anxiously awaiting the arrival of the new tryouts. This was such a big event in fact, that the principal was hosting the ceremonial pre-guest guidelines on how to treat the new tryouts…

"Attention students," spoke a man to his student audience. He was tall and very lean, but not overly muscular. His face was matured, but also held a familiar boyish charm about it. He looked so refined, and yet youthful at the same time. If someone were to see him off the streets, they wouldn't be able to tell if here were 20 or 40. With bizarre duck tail hair, including 2 different shades of brown, this man was the new school chancellor.

In his youth, the man had actually attended as a student at the school. He even saved the school on numerous occasions. When he finally graduated, he chose to explore the world in search of other great duelists with special talents such as his own. It's unknown to most why he ended up back at the school as the current chancellor.

"As you all know, today is the day when the new students shall take the exams in hopes of joining our wonderful academy!" then the student body exploded with thunderous applaud.

"Now as we do every year, we will have duels to see which of the new applicant have what it takes to join the acade…"

But before he could finish his speech, one particular student interrupted.

"Hey pops… uh I mean Chancellor Yuki. I know it is standard procedure to have the new entrants duel against proctors, but don't you think us students could duel them instead" the boy offered innocently, yet with an all too familiar grin. This boy, like the principal, had hair that was in the shape of a chicken butt. But unlike the chancellor, his hair was blonde in color.

"Ugh…Baken, why can't you just accept the rules as they are like all the rest of the students" the principal questioned with a sigh. "Honestly, your dueling spirit is admirable, but…"

But before the chancellor could finish his sentence, another student let his voice be heard. It was a powerful and demanding voice that instantly gathered the attention of the entire student audience.

"Pardon my intrusion Chancellor, but Baken's suggestion seems rather intriguing… It could present a prime opportunity for both us students and those who have come to try to enter the academy" the student said, his majestic purple hair swaying from side to side.

And upon hearing this, Baken's grin doubled in size. "That's right Kesado, tell him!"

A small smirk crept up on Kesado's visage as he began to speak. "You see principal Yuki, It would give us students a chance to exemplify what we've learned from our time in the Academy. Not only that, but it would show the world the power if Duel Academy, and the range by which they must reach to be a part of it".

Then the boy inhaled deeply, making sure to speak at a moderate speed so he could accurately articulate what was on his mind. "It would also point out those students who lack the dueling ability necessary to exist in here" the boy said sharply, causing many of the students to cringe.

"We would be able to weed out the dead weight, show off our talent, and find worthy new talents all at the same time" the boy concluded.

"Hmm…" principal Yuki hummed as he thought about the idea. And after a minute or two of awkward silence, he made his decision.

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"Well students, since it seems Kesado made a good point…" _'…and I can't find a reason not to,_' he mentally added, "Then the students will participate in this year's student entry exam!"

And at this news, many of the students began to cheer for now they had the chance to show their skills while others just let their head fall in apprehension.

"But wait students, not everyone will participate; this year there are about 300 applicants trying to enter the academy, but because this has never been done before, I figure… only ninety of you will actually duel an applicant. The rest of the applicants will duel the proctors as per usual. I think that seems fair.

The way this will work is like so: we will divide the number of students evenly. That means there will be 30 students dueling for each dorm, Slifer Red, Ra Yellow, and Obelisk Blue. And because you will not be using a probation deck, the applicants will be graded on how well they perform rather than if they win or not"

Then Chancellor Yuki let a smirk cross his face. "At first I was considering picking the student duelists based on merit, but now I think it would be more fun if we just selected the students at random. Doesn't that sound fun? Heh, it should keep you all on your toes."

The students began to look around at one another until one of the students finally stood and spoke directly to the Chancellor.

"Erm… when will we find out who is assigned to duel or not?"

And with that, the students began an upheaval over who should, and shouldn't, participate.

"Calm down students, the participants shall be announced during the duels. Other than that, there's no way to know beforehand. You all will just have to be ready in case you get called upon. Of course, there are three particular students I think should be given a definite position.

First off… Baken will first duel for the Ra Yellow dorm since this entire event was his idea. Second… Kesado will be the first to duel for the Obelisk Blue dorm since he too participated in the" ahem "_debate_. And for the Slifer Reds…" and as principal took his time in announcing the final participant, the many Slifers held their breath in anticipation.

"…The initial Slifer representative shall be Jin Moto. The rest of the eighty-seven students shall be selected at random, and the rest of the entrants shall be handled by duel proctors". And by this single statement, the crowd hushed in disappointment; not because they felt they missed a great opportunity, rather because they felt the named duelist didn't deserve the chance.

Then a small boy, about 5 feet tall, and slim, stood with a nervous look on his face. His red blazer seemed to be slightly too large for him, as if there wasn't a blazer in stock that could fit the small boy, causing him to wear it in a weird but all too familiar style. His hair alone could take hours to describe, but the overall shape of it was just like his father's. The color on the other hand was far different. The 9 large bangs that he had (that stood up and fell down) were purple. The outline of his hair, instead of his father's purple, was a reddish color. The inner part of his hair was an almost metallic blue, but there was no defining line of what separated the inner hair from the outside hair. Unlike his father, the two different hair colors just seemed to blend together in an indistinctive style.

And about his red blazer; he wore it like how The King of Games wore his blue overcoat in his Battle City days. Under it he wore a sleeveless black shirt. His jeans were form fitting and white with black straps near the heel. His shoes were average and black with red highlights. Ironically, his scarlet red eyes seemed to be the thing about him that got the most attention.

Kesado on the other hand seemed far different from both Baken (who was a blond haired version of the principal in his younger years) and Jin. Kesado was tall, muscular, and cool to no end. So calm, cool and collected in fact that he carried an air about him that was only matched by his hard face. His hair was a royal purple version of Yami Bakura's, but seemed to be pulled slightly back, and was even wilder. His eyes were also purple and he wore a blue blazer and baggy black pants.

Along with Jin, Kesado and Baken stood and walked out of the auditorium and back to their dorms were they began to prepare their decks.

As they left, the other students also began to disperse, many excited, or disappointed.

* * *

_Meanwhile on a ship…_

There was around 400 people on this ship, and of the 400, about 300 of them were kids around the age of 14. Most of these kids were inside the ships main room dueling each other, but a few of these passengers were standing outside by the edge of the ship, looking into deep blue sea.

One particular teen had hair that was spiky but still slicked back, and a ridiculously long ponytail. His hair was a bit weird. Most of his hair was a midnight purple but parts of his hair beheld green-ish streaks. His eyes were also a crystal black color. His skin complexion was a traditional light variation.

He stood and looked over into the sea, completely lost in thought. It would've been impossible for the average person to guess what was on the adolescent's mind, but as a reader, you're not plagued by such problems. '_This is my big chance to make something of myself. I hope I don't mess this up…'_

* * *

_Duel Academy shores 9:00 Morning…_

It was about time for the ship with the new arrivals to, well, arrive. So Principal Yuki went outside to the shores of Duel Academy to personally greet the new arrivals.

He really enjoyed this moment that he finally had to himself. He stared off into the vast expanses of the sea. In some unfathomable way, it reminded him of his youth, and all the crazy adventures he'd experienced. Back then, he had such freedom and whimsy. But now…

Just then, a ship in the distance came closer and closer until it was parking at the dock.

"Ahoy captain!" Principal Yuki yelled with excitement as the captain (along with the kids) began to get off of the ship.

* * *

_Meanwhile…_

During the time that Principal Yuki had gone to the ship, Jin had returned to his room and started altering his deck for his upcoming duels. But he wasn't aware that Baken had walked into his room and was quietly watching.

"Aww this sucks. Why did the principal have to get me to duel? I've only like won a handful of duels in my life, and only two since I've been in the academy" Jin told himself as he let a few of his cards slide out of his hands and fall onto the floor.

"Come on Jin, don't think that way" Baken said encouragingly, causing Jin to jump with shock and drop the cards he'd been holding.

"Oh, Baken! It's just you… Shouldn't you be preparing for your upcoming duel?"

"Don't worry about me, my deck is always prepared! But… Um, Jin, you're a great duelist, you just doubt yourself way too much. Remember Jin, I've dueled you dozens of times and you have a lot if talent."

Then Baken leaned over and picked up Jin's cards before stopping at one. "_Solstice of Dark Magician_…" Baken thought aloud, a slight hint of shock in his voice. "Jin, have you had this card the whole time?"

"…yeah"

"So then why haven't you ever used it?"

"Because"

"Because what?"

"Because I haven't proved my worth…"

"…_Because you haven't proved your worth_? What does that even mean?"

"Ugh" Jin growled as he laid on his bedside "…Well I'm sure that by now you know my father is Yugi Moto, A.K.A the King of Games. Well when I first took up dueling, instead of giving me the deck he dueled with, he told me to create my own deck with cards that I cherish, because only then would my deck have my heart in it… Over those few years, I gathered cards and put my heart in making my deck, but because of the way I gathered my cards, they weren't too powerful, so I went to my father for help" the emerald eyed boy stated, all the while staring at the roof.

"…But all he told me was_ 'if I really put my heart in the deck, then it would all work out'_. One day, I found a sparse group of cards that, like my father's deck, was Dark Magician oriented. There wasn't a Dark Magician, but there was _that_ card, so I decided that if I could confidently win a duel against a powerful opponent with the socalledheart of the cards, then I would include those cards in my deck…"

The two boys sat there for several silent seconds before Baken finally broke the silent pattern. "Jin…" he began, "I don't want to break your belief or anything, but you can't become a great duelist if you don't utilize your deck's ability to its fullest potential!"

"… Well, maybe you are right. I need time to think"

* * *

_Later on, at the auditorium…_

A couple of hours had passed and everyone had gathered back into the auditorium to watch the duels. The duel proctors (along with Jin, Kesado, Baken, and other student testers) and the new kids all came to the center of the auditorium to begin their duels.

Many of the applicants that gathered in the auditorium were marveling at its sheer magnitude. "It's so big… And so nice…" They'd had already been informed of the new dueling exam that they would take place in. Three of the applicants were selected to duel the three chosen Academy students. The rest would watch, much like a 'welcome to Duel Academy' demonstration.

As the crowd waited for the duels to begin, the duelists were getting prepared. Kesado was to duel first, against a supposed dueling prodigy named Keiko Aruyame. Apparently she came from a rather wealthy family, entitling her to a very powerful deck.

Then Baken was to follow his duel against a skilled duelist named George Hill. After which, the applicants would go about their own schedule, whether it be duel against proctor, or student. After the exams were over, Jin would end the day with the final duel against a person named Hakoda, who had no previous dueling background.

Kesado didn't particularly look forward to dueling his female opponent. He would've rather had an opponent that relied on skill alone, and not just money and power. Nevertheless, he asked for this opportunity. He surely wasn't going to back down now.

* * *

_At the dueling field…_

At long last, both participants had finished their last minute preparations, and went to their respective side of the duel field.

Kesado stood patiently, looking exactly as he had before. The young girl stood opposite him. She had shoulder length dark color hair, and large hazel brown eyes. Her face was also fairly slim and narrow. If it wasn't for the aura of arrogance that she gave off, many would consider her to be beautiful. The upper-class satin blue dress she was wearing didn't help dissuade her arrogant appearance.

The crowd watched with excitement and anticipation as Kesado and Keiko stared each other down, trying to gain a mental edge before the duel actually started.

A sudden hush fell over the audience, the intensity rising… Everyone held their breath, waiting to see what was to unfold.

"…"

"…"

"…"

Finally, it was the applicant, Keiko, who broke the silence.

"Since I'm the challenger, then I'll go first" Kesado's opponent declared as she drew for his six cards, Kesado five.

"I'll start with the magic card Malicious Warfare, so now whenever an attack is declared, the attacking party loses a thousand life points" the girl said with a smug grin as she looked at the frown on Kesado's face. "I'll simply place a monster in facedown defense position and a facedown spell or trap. Turn end!"

Jin stared at the duel field with a puzzled look on his face, which Baken noticed.

Trying to act as if he had just figured it out himself, Baken broadly announced, "Oh, she played that card to stop Kesado from attacking her because she probably uses flip effect monsters. I bet that she built her deck so she doesn't even need to attack to win a duel".

"So that's why she played that card" Jin thought aloud. "Well if that's all there is to her deck, then Kesado shouldn't have too much trouble beating her then."

Kesado wasted no time and drew his card to start his turn. "Before I get started, would like to inform you that I am the number one ranked student at this academy."

Keiko's eyes widened ever so slightly. "So… That makes you the Kaiser."

"Correct. That being the case, you should understand that you're most certainly going to lose this duel."

Keiko merely scoffed at the older boys words. "Please. You won't even be a challenge, Kaiser or not."

"Hmm. At any rate, I would just like to inform you of how this will work. Generally, you would duel a proctor with an exam deck. But I am not a proctor, and this is my own personal deck. So you will not be graded on whether you win or not, you will be graded purely on how well you perform. As a side note, I shall grade you myself. I would like to see how well you can stand up to my deck. The test will be to see if you can force me to top-deck or not" a slight smirk plastered on his visage to emphasize his point.

The young girl merely sighed and tapped her feet impatiently. "I'm not interested in your challenge. I'm going to beat you, and everyone else that stands in my way. Now can you just get on with your turn already?"

"Very well. Since attacking you will cost me too many life points, I'll just set two cards and a monster face down and end my turn."

Then Kesado's opponent drew, giving her 4 cards in her hand.

"Well since you failed to destroy it, I'll flip summon my face down monster, The Glider of Apollo (Atk: 0, Def: 1000), and with this monster is successfully flip summoned, I can special summon one lvl 4 or lower monster with Apollo in its name from my hand, and I summon Apollo's Chariot! (Atk: 0, Def: 2000)" the dark haired female opponent explained as a giant orange chariot holding the sun appeared next to the small glider.

Kesado just looked on with a cold, analyzing look on his eyes, the smirk long since faded. "I noticed those monsters' weak attack points, and since you've made it so costly to attack, I can only guess that whatever you're trying to pull off, it has nothing to with attacking… Yet."

"Oh how perceptive of you" the girl mocked, "but just because you realized that I won't be attacking yet, that doesn't mean that you know what I'm planning. Now I'll place one more monster face down and activate my spell card Rendezvous Point, so from now on, every time a monster is normal summoned or flip summoned, during the end phase of that turn, that monster is returned to the owners hand" the girl said gleefully as Kesado slightly frowned.

Then he drew a card and started his turn. "I too flip my monster face up" Kesado announced as his card flipped face up, revealing a huge cannon that seemed to be a mere conglomeration of flesh and other amorphous organs (Atk & Def: 0). "Meet the Living Cannon!"

"Oh man, Kesado got that monster out already?" Jin asked rhetorically, a slight bead of sweat gliding down the side of his face.

"Oh yeah! Kesado will definitely win now!" Baken added excitedly.

"What's the big deal? That monster doesn't have any points" the female opponent remarked as she had one hand on her hip, giving off the impression that she was slightly irritated.

"True this monster doesn't have any points, but what it lacks in strength, it more than makes up for with its ability. Allow me to explain; you see, after this monster has been successfully flip summoned, I can choose one level four or lower monster from my hand and send it to the grave, then you take damage to your life points x200 for that monster's level. Then during my next standby phase, the monster is special summoned to my field in face up defense position. The only flaw in its effect is that I can't normal summon a monster the same turn I use its effect."

"Now I send the level three monster Koukoshen Ghost Hunter from my hand to the grave to inflict 600 points of damage to your life points" Kesado said with a more emotion then he'd shown previously as the cannon shot a small armored girl directly at his opponent's midsection, dropping her to the floor and her life points to 3400. "Now I end my turn".

Keiko quickly stood up, and forcefully drew a card from her deck, giving her a total of 4 cards in her hand to work with. Then the Living Cannon returned to Kesado's hand, leaving the boy defenseless.

"I wasn't expecting to take damage last turn, but other than that, you basically just wasted your turn! Now I'll take this opportunity to activate my Chariot's effect, and return my monsters to my hand to inflict 1000 points of direct damage to you!" And as Keiko finished her speech, her monsters flew into the air, the Chariot releasing the sun upon Kesado.

The boy watched with a smirk as the raging ball of fired quickly approached him, waiting for the last possible moment to act. "By discarding my Phantom Shieldron (1500/0) monster card to the graveyard, I can reduce the damage to zero" Kesado casually explained as a ghoulish shield protected him from the incoming attack, much to Keiko's disappointment. With that, she ended her turn.

"Now I shall introduce you to the power of my deck. Much as your deck need not attack, mine doesn't need to normal summon; rather, it utilizes the ability to special summon from beyond the grave, an ability I shall demonstrate now!" And as Kesado drew from his deck, Koukoshen Ghost Hunter (900/500) appeared on the field, her tiny body covered in ancient armor a few sizes too big.

"Next I shall activate my Phantom Shieldron's effect; one that can only be activated from the grave" Kesado ran his hand through his hair, brushing it back as he prepared for his next move.

"Like a synchro summon, I can equip him to a monster on my field and release them both to summon a monster from my extra deck", then the purple haired Obelisk threw his hand up in dramatic effect. "Now arise, Keldoor Ghost (2050/0)!" Then a giant purple monster appeared on the field, its ghostly figure around Kesado protectively.

"Now I shall take over this duel. Keldoor, attack her directly!" Kesado demanded, much to Keiko's disbelief. "Are you stupid? You will lose a thousand life points!" But Kesado simply ignored his opponent and continued his assault, draining Keiko's life points down to 1350.

But as the effects of Maliciously Warfare threatened to deal him 1000 points of damage, Keldoor intercepted the blast, protecting Kesado. "As long as Keldoor is on the field, I will receive no damage at all. Now take your turn _Keiko-hime"._

Keiko furiously ripped the top card off her deck, giving her 7 cards to work with. "I'll make you pay for that! I'll set a monster facedown and play Apollo's Remnants! This allows me to add a monster with Apollo in its name to my hand."

Then, as she took the card from her deck, Keiko's facedown monster was bathed in a holy blue light, causing it to flip face up, revealing her familiar Glider. "My Soothsayer spell card allows me to flip my Glider of Apollo (0/1000) and activate his effect to bring out the monster I just gathered, which would be Apollo's assistant!" Keiko yelled victoriously as a small hapless blacksmith appeared next to the familiar Glider (100/100).

Then the newly summoned monster began to call for help, causing the familiar Chariot to descend from the heavens (0/2000).

"Impressive" Kesado chimed in.

"I'm not done yet! When my Assistant is on the field, I can bring out one of my Apollo cards. Of course it must return to my hand during my end phase, but that's not a problem right now!"

Then the three monsters merged into a god of a monster, with vibrant tanned skin, wearing heavily clad amber armor and a heavenly orange aura about it, riding on a familiar chariot (2500/2500). "Meet Greek god: Apollo!"

"Sorry to spoil your fun Keiko-_hime_, but I choose this time to activate my face down, Ghastly Dread. Now I remove my Keldoor Ghost to destroy your monster. As an added bonus, I get to return a weaker non-Zombie monster, namely Koukoshen Ghost Hunter (900/500) to my field." And as Kesado finished his explanation, Keldoor flew into Apollo, leaving the young warrior in his previous place.

Keiko allowed an arrogant grin to spread across her otherwise pretty face. "Sorry ghost-boy, but because I sacrificed the Chariot to summon him, Apollo is protected from destruction" and as Keiko finished her statement, the Greek God leapt from the chariot, narrowly avoiding destruction.

"You thought you had me, but it seems it is the other way around now!" but as the girl chastised Kesado, all she received was a look of superiority from the teen.

"This next move should wipe that cocky smirk right off your face." Keiko said as she placed her two remaining cards on the field. Moments later, a bow appeared in Apollo's grasp, who, also began to glow an even more radiant orange (3000/2500).

"I equipped Apollo with Bow of the Gods, so now he gains a point boost, and you want be able to chain to his attacks!"

"And what about the light show" Kesado questioned.

"Oh, that? Well I also equipped him with his Armour of the Gods. Now he can't be destroyed by spell or card effects, and as an added bonus. If he is unable to do battle, then you shall suffer 1000 points of direct damage!"

Then the Greek God went down on one knee, took aim, and fired a flaming boy at Kesado's pint-sized warrior. "And as for Apollo's actual effect, as long as he's on my field, I won't lose any life points from any of my card effects. That means Malicious Warfare will only affect you!"

But as Keiko continued to brag about her lock down, the Ghost Hunter's armor began to glow a ghoulish white, repelling Apollo's arrow.

"Sorry Keiko-_hime_, But my monster does have an effect. You see, if she is chosen as an attack target, I can discard one zombie monster from my hand to the grave to keep her from being destroyed. I also take no damage" Kesado finished, his superior smirk still plastered on his face.

Keiko was fuming. "Ugh! You keep escaping me every time I try to cause damage!" Then the girl stopped her ranting, and regained her composure. "But that is okay. I'll defeat you soon enough"

Noticing Keiko had no more cards in her hand, Kesado started his turn, drawing from his deck with grand flourish, bringing his hand count to four.

"I place one monster in defense and end my turn"

"Is that all?" Keiko taunted as she ripped the top card from her deck. "I play the spell card Pot of Greed to draw two more cards" then she stared at the cards in disbelief.

"I'll set one card and… I think that monster I your Living Cannon, right? I'll attack that monster" then Apollo fired another flaming arrow, this one destroying the monster, which turned out to be the Living Cannon.

Then Kesado drew once more, again returning his hand count to four. "You destroyed my monster before I was able to flip summon it, so I don't get to benefit from its effect… Now I need to appropriately adjust my strategy" Kesado said passively as he sifted through the cards in his hand.

Baken and Jin just stared at one another with bewilderment. "I've never heard Kesado say he needed to change tactics. This should be good!"

"I'll summon my Ghastly Reaper in Atk mode (500/0)" then monster appeared, wearing a black cloak, and holding a scythe. "This is a union monster, so I shall equip him to a level 3 or lower non-zombie monster" Kesado stated as the monster surrounded Koukoshen, causing the little girl to scream in horror. When the union was finished, Koukoshen was now wearing the cloak as if it were a cape, extended scythe in her hands (1400/0).

"It increases her attack points by 500, drops her defense to 0, and…" instead of finishing his sentence, he allowed his monster to demonstrate. She took that as her cue and slung the scythe at an unsuspecting Apollo.

"Once per turn, she can relinquish her attack to destroy one of your monsters…"

"I don't think so" Keiko yelled loudly as she flipped her face down. "Inter-Dimensional Matter Transporter!" then Apollo was surrounded by some weird contraption that looked like it came out of a sci-fi convention.

"This card shall remove my monster from play for the remainder of your turn" and as Keiko finished her sentence, a new, larger more powerful version of Apollo appeared on the field (3500/3000), wielding the Bow and shining the familiar light.

Kesado stared at the new monster with an impressed smirk on his face.

"I can special summon this monster from my hand or deck when Apollo is removed from in a fashion other than battle. He is then equipped with whatever cards were previously equipped to Apollo. And for his final effect, any effect damage that I would normally take is sent to you instead"

"Impressive. I shall end my turn. Make your next turn count." Then the original Apollo appeared next to his empowered form, albeit slightly weaker (2500/2500).

"Oh, I will" Keiko promised as she drew the top card from her deck. "And this card shall help me do it. It's a spell card called Phalanx Rising, and allows me to bring back a monster from my grave, its attack and defense switched" then the familiar Chariot descended from the heavens, resting between the two Greek Gods (2000/0).

"I know you have three cards in your hand, but I highly doubt that all of them are Zombies, so let's find out!"

Then the Chariot shot at the little female warrior, only to be repelled as Kesado discarded a card from his hand. But due to a combination of Malicious Warfare and Neo Apollo's effect, Kesado's life points dropped to 3000.

"Finally! Now Apollo, attack" but the Greek god's attack was also repelled.

"Okay, Neo Apollo, show this fool your might!" The almighty god fired an arrow at the young warrior.

"I do not have another Zombie in my hand but there is one thing… I think you forgot about my set card!" Kesado all but roared as his facedown card flipped face-up, causing the Ghost Hunter to burst into a shower of pixels, the arrow harmlessly passing through.

"Now what?"

"My set card is what. It's a trap card known as _'Beast-Out!'_, which allows me to sacrifice one of my monsters to summon a dragon of equal level" and at that, Koukoshen Ghost Hunter burst into a shower of pixels, allowing Neo Apollo's arrow to pass through harmlessly.

Not a moment later, the almighty Red Eyes Black Dragon was created from the scattered pixels left behind by the female warrior. The black dragon let out a savage roar as its attack points rose to 2900 (2900/2000).

"The dragon that is summoned by _'Beast-Out!'_ gains an additional 500 attack points" Kesado interjected.

"But Red Eyes is a level 7…" Keiko stated in disbelief. "Oh, but my monster was a level 7. You see, Ghastly Reaper also transferred his four stars to Koukoshen's three, making seven" Kesado finished his explanation as he placed his hand on the top of his deck, preparing to start his turn.

Keiko stared on with a blank expression at the majestic dragon of darkness that opposed her. It seemed so amazingly power. Not as powerful as her superior mythological god, but still incredibly powerful. So powerful, and majestic. And so lively. Wait, lively?

"Hey! Your whole deck revolves around these undead freaks of yours. So why are you sporting a Red Eyes Black Dragon?"

Kesado chuckled slightly at the question. It was really quite refreshing to duel someone that didn't know all about his deck.

"My deck is a little more complex than you're making it out to be. There's one central focus to these ghosts of mine. Most of these ghostly creatures don't belong to the world of the living. Because of this, they need something living to attach to in order to stay in this realm. In other words, most of my ghosts unionize with my non-zombie monsters in order to bring out their full potential"

The younger girl stood quietly for a moment, mentally ingesting the new information. It was not for a few moments did it finally click in her head what her opponent was implying.

"You're about to combine one of those ghosts with the Red Eyes, aren't you?"

Then a powerful wave of energy was released from the boy as he ripped the top card from his deck. "Bingo" he said daringly, his purple eyes glowing with power…

* * *

**Well, hopefully you guys enjoyed this chapter. As I always, I feedback is greatly appreciated. I look forward to hearing from you guys once again. Sorry for the hiatus.**

**This is Rizengan01 signing out**


	2. Making the Grade!

**Author's Note: Like last time, this chapter will also feature two duels. This was not intentional, but hey, what can you do? Also, Chaos Emperor Dragon's name shall instead be treated as Chaos Luster Dragon for intensive reasons. Anyway, this chapter will introduce Nizone's sister, so hopefully that will turn out well. As always, hope you enjoy.**

**Update:**

**As of August 2nd, 2012, this chapter has been updated. Hopefully now it will be more enjoyable for all you readers**

_**YuGiOh GX: Spirits UnBound**_

**Chapter 3: Exam Finals, Jin faces his opponent!**

* * *

Ryouu returned to the stands where his friends were eagerly awaiting him. When he arrived, they all discussed their own duels.

Nizone had won with the power of his Rasengan based fire deck. The power of the deck allowed him to win in very few turns. Misui bragged about how she did even better; she used a powerful water deck to deliver an effective OTK.

Ryouu felt somewhat shy about his duel. He took the longest to win his duel and was also the only one to suffer any damage. But he didn't let his friends know it; instead he focused on about the powerful combo he used to end the duel.

While the trio were conversing over the duels and their written exam, the rest of the applicants were finishing their duels. In fact, there were only about four duels left, all in the final phases.

After another half hour or so, it was Jin's turn to step to the plate.

The young Slifer Red made his way to the dueling arena; thanks to Baken, he was hyped and ready to duel.

But as the boy stood at the field, he saw an image that significantly dropped his morale; his opponent.

The boy made his way to the duel field opposite Jin, stone cold expression on his face. He wore a skin tight military vest and cargo pants. His hair was spiky but still slicked back, and he had a ridiculously long ponytail. Most of his hair was a midnight purple but parts of his hair were green-ish streaks. His eyes were also a crystal black color.

Jin shivered with doubt as he watched his opponent approach. "My name is Hakoda, and I will be your opponent" the applicant stated as he drew his starting hand, not waiting on Jin to draw as he began his turn.

* * *

_Up at the stands…_

"That's one rough looking duelist, yeah" Nizone muttered to no one in particular. Misui and Ryouu silently nodded. A few meters away from them, a particular blonde haired second year Ra Yellow began to root for his friend, catching the trio off guard.

"You can do it Jin! Don't let this guy intimidate you, show him your stuff!"

* * *

_Back on the duel field…_

Hakoda stared at the six cards for but a moment, meticulously forming a strategy. "I'll activate the spell card Luster Charge which will allow me add a particular monster to my hand. I shall then summon that monster" the crystal eyed boy stated as he played the card that he'd just added to his hand. "Arise, Luster Dragon!"

Then an impressive sapphire dragon appeared on the field, its 1900 attack points making it a force to be reckoned with.

"Now I'll place one card facedown and end my turn".

Jin summoned up the morale he came into the duel with and drew the top six cards of his deck.

"Because I do not have any monsters in the graveyard, I can summon my Rune Warrior (Atk: 1000)" then a pudgy white clad swordsman appeared on the field, his sword about the size of a large knife.

Hakoda stared on in with apprehension at the thought of the monster that stood before him. _'No one would intentionally use such a weak monster to defend against something as powerful as my Luster Dragon…"_

"Now I'll use my normal summon to call out Winged Alabaster" Jin finished. Then a dark bat-humanoid appeared on the field next to the Rune Warrior (Atk: 1200). "I end my turn" Jin said confidently.

Hakoda drew, and then stared at the field cautiously_. 'I'm not sure what kind of game this kid is playing, but I'll take the bait'_.

"I'll play my Ancient Rules spell card so now I can summon a level 5 or higher normal monster without a tribute for this turn. And I have just the monster in mind" then a giant emerald dragon appeared next to the sapphire one. This one was even more massive, and also more beautiful.

"I summon the Luster Dragon #2" the dragon let out a powerful roar as it established itself as the strongest monster on the field (Atk: 2400).

"Now I'll have my two monsters attack yours" the dragons both attacked Jin's defending monsters, but Alabaster faded into the darkness, avoiding the emerald dragon's attack.

"Sorry but my Alabaster cannot be destroyed if there is a LIGHT monster on the field, or if a LIGHT monster has already been destroyed this turn" Jin stated hesitantly, even as his life points dropped to 1900.

Hakoda cringed. _'Darn'_ he though_. 'That means that monster will be around another turn. What is he planning?'_

"I end my turn" the applicant declared.

Jin wordlessly snatched the top card from his deck before glancing at it. "Hah, now I can steal the lead" the Slifer said semi-confidently as he played the card he just drew.

"The spell card Twilight Appraisal lets me remove the LIGHT monster in my graveyard from play to increase the power of the DARK monster on the field" and as Rune Warrior was placed in Jin's back pocket, Alabaster was shrouded in a white aura that jumped his power to 2200.

"But it doesn't end yet. I equip my monster with Black Pendant to power him up by another 500" and as the unholy necklace appeared around the winged fiend's neck, his attack points further increased to 2700, effectively making him the strongest monster on the field.

"Now attack his Luster Dragon #2 with Shadow Storm!" but as he witnessed the disappointed look on his opponent's face, he immediately wished he could've withdrew the attack.

"Fool. This isn't just a contest to see who can bring about the most powerful monster" the crystal eyed boy stated with disapproval hinted in his voice. Then as the shadows neared his monster, he flipped over his face down trap card.

"It's called Luster Purge and can only be activated when you declare an attack against one of my 'Luster' monsters. First I must discard a card from my hand" which he promptly did. "I can now negate your attack and remove the attacking monster from play. Unfortunately for you, this card's effect cannot be negated!"

Then, much to Jin's horror, the emerald dragon fired a pulsating blast that ripped through the shadows and smashed into Alabaster, turning him into little more than a shower off pixels. Due to the effect of Black Pendant, Hakoda lost a negligible amount of life points (3500).

Jin stood there looking mortified. He'd constructed his deck very poorly, and because of that, had little he could do. "I'll set a monster facedown and a spell or trap. That'll end my turn."

But even as Hakoda drew his card, he wasn't buying into Jin's bluff. "You made an amateur mistake; it's not hard to figure out why you are in the lowest ranked dorm in the school. Pity, compared to your colleagues, you seem completely insignificant."

As Jin frowned, and Baken yelled out a few unsightly words, Hakoda continued his turn.

"I'll start by activating Graceful Charity. With this spell card, I can draw three new cards at the cost of discarding two." True to his word, Hakoda slid the top three cards off his deck. After rearranging his hand, he chose two cards and placed them in his graveyard slot.

"Now this is where the duel gets fun. One of the cards I discarded was the ever-reliable Magician of Faith (300/400). I would also like to mention that the monster I discarded to activate Luster Purge was the equally famous Old Vindictive Magician (450/600)."

"Okay… What's the point of telling me this?"

Hakoda closed his eyes and tilted his head to the floor. Jin was not sure if this was insulting or not, but he was willing to bet it was. His face scrunched in annoyance.

"You yourself use a deck that balances the forces of light and dark, and yet you fail to realize the setup I have created? Fine, allow me to demonstrate."

Suddenly, a large amount of pixels began to gather in front of the young crystal eyed applicant. They began to take the shape of a giant monstrous being, dwarfing both other Luster Dragons. It was clearly a dragon, larger than any other that had been on the field so far. It had muscular human-like arms, and a long giraffe-like neck. It had powerful, bestial hind legs, and a terrifying maw. Its wings were just as dynamic as any other portion of its majestic body. Its scales were an emerald green, lined with solid gold trim. It was truly a wonderful sight to behold (Atk: 3000/Def: 2500).

As Jin stared at the towering beast, he managed to squeeze out a sentence between chattering teeth.

"Wha… What the heck is that thing?!"

"This is the engine of your destruction. It's the almighty Chaos Luster Dragon- Envoy of the End, and it can only be summoned by removing one light and one dark monster from my grave…" Then Luster Dragon #2 effortlessly destroyed Jin's facedown monster with one swipe of its mighty tail.

Hakoda gave Jin that same disapproving frown. "I wanted to see more skill than what you've shown me so far. Needless to say I am disgusted" then he lifted his hand and directed his index finger directly towards his Slifer Red opponent.

"Wait…" Jin uttered, his head tilted down so that his eyes were overshadowed by his purple bangs. A sense of shame could be detected in his voice as he spoke.

"Give me one more turn to prove myself. You've obviously shown that you have the skill to be in this facility…" and as the boy spoke, bangs still covering his face, his voice began to rattle as he tried to hold down his emotions.

"So let me prove I deserve to be here!" Jin screamed as he lifted his head up, revealing much stronger scarlet eyes. Much more demanding scarlet eyes…

Hakoda was so taken aback by the change in the young man's demeanor (and so was Baken for that matter) that he couldn't help but give in to his demands.

Jin understood by Hakoda's body language alone that he was sparing him, so he quickly pulled the top card off his deck and gave it a hard stare, _'perfect…'_

"I'll show you power" Jin said in a much more demanding voice. Gone was the fragility that he once spoke was. It was almost as if he was a completely different person.

"I'll discard my LIGHT attribute Sickle Fairy to use its effect and decrease your Chaos Luster Dragon's attack points by 1000" and as he sent the card to the grave, a transparent angel placed restricting chains on the dragon, decreasing its points to a less impressive 2000.

Hakoda nodded in approval.

Then Jin depressed a button on his duel disk, activating the facedown card from the previous turn. "I activate my Reflux Index trap card. It can only be activated when a LIGHT or DARK monster is discarded to the grave to activate an effect. I can then discard another monster of the same attribute to replay the active effect. I'll use another Sickle Fairy" then another copy of Sickle Fairy slid from the boy's deck. He immediately placed it in the graveyard, and Chaos Luster Dragon's attack points dropped to a measly 1000.

"I'm much more impressed now that you've decided to take this duel seriously" Hakoda acknowledged. Jin merely nodded and continued his turn.

"The best part is only just beginning. I can feel it" he interjected as he placed another card on his duel disk.

"This spell card, Twilight Solstice will remove one LIGHT and DARK monster from my grave and return them to my deck. Then I can draw two more cards" and his facedown monster from the previous turn and a copy of Sickle Fairy were promptly returned. Then he drew two more cards, one of which was immediately abandoned for the other.

'_I knew you could do it Jin'_ Baken thought proudly as he watched his best friend put on a show. _'Now show them how you get down!'_

A few seats away, the trio were also watching the duel. Both Ryouu and Misui were completely taken aback from Jin's sudden change in demeanor. Only Nizone was maintaining his composure. And as per usual, he had a mischievous grin on his face.

"The kid's got spunk, yeah!"

Even the chancellor was enjoying the duel. His familiar smile was present on his face. He was glad that Hakoda was such a powerful duelist, and even more pleased that Jin was breaking out of his shell.

His smile grew even larger as he enjoyed the show.

* * *

_Back at the duel field…_

"This is the card I've been waiting for. The card that can win this duel for me" Jin said coolly as he placed it on the field, after removing the last two monsters in his grave. Hakoda stared in bewilderment at the new monster.

"Not only does this monster match yours, but in Chaos Luster Dragon's weakened condition, my monster surpasses it!" then a majestic armored man appeared on the field. He carried around a shield that matched his Greco-Roman armor, and a sword that was only suitable for the world's finest swordsmen. "Meet my Black Luster Soldier- Envoy of the Beginning (3000/2500)!"

"Hakoda, if this monster destroys one of your monsters in battle, he can attack again" and much to Hakoda's horror, Jin demonstrated his monster's effect through actual battle. The Soldier cocked his sword back, and lunged at Chaos Luster Dragon, chopping its head clean off and dealing a mighty blow to Hakoda's life points (1500).

Then the warrior did a midair summersault and brought its sword down directly on Luster Dragon's skull, obliterating it instantly and nearing his opponent's life points to the zero mark (400).

"Now my monster has just enough attack points to end this duel with this next attack" Jin taunted with the unfamiliar smirk on his face. Hakoda on the other hand seemed to be in a daze. He couldn't believe that was about to lose a duel that he had_ complete_ control over one mere turn ago, and to _that_ monster no less. It seemed like the type of last-minute heroics you see in a comic book. But this was no comic, this was real. It was his life!

_'Dammit this cannot be! I cannot fail this…'_

Then Jin ushered in what was sure to be the final words of the duel "Black Luster Soldier, destroy Luster Dragon #2 and end this duel" and with that, the soldier, sword still in the cranium of the slain dragon, flung his shield at the emerald beast, decapitating it. But Hakoda received no damage.

"That was too close" the crystal eyed boy said as he discarded a card from his hand.

"The last card in my hand was Battle Innuendo. Now because you destroyed my monsters, your battle phase is ended without me losing anymore life points."

Jin smirked at his now defensive opponent and set a card face down to end his turn.

Hakoda started his turn, he discarded the final card he held and drew five new cards. "Because Twilight Renewal was the only card in my hand, I got to draw 5 new ones". Then he drew his sixth.

Hakoda then smiled. Not at the cards he held in his hand, but at the duel itself. Both Hakoda and Jin used cards that focused on LIGHT and DARK based monsters, and both of them had an Envoy card. Hakoda appreciated facing such a capable opponent, especial one so similar to himself.

"Your monster is powerful, Jin. But it won't be able to break through my defenses. I summon my Shield Prison Unit in defense position (0/1000)" then a giant bubble appeared on the field. Another smaller bubble then rose from the ground, Chaos Luster Dragon in the center of it. The smaller bubble joined with the larger bubble and kept the dragon inside of it all (0/4000).

"When this monster is summoned to the field, I can equip a Luster monster from my grave and equip it to him. His power boost is relative to that monster's attack points."

Then he placed one card face down on the field and ended his turn.

Jin drew, giving him but a single card in hand. "This card is of no use to me" then he turned his sights on his prized monster. "I shall active my Soldier's final effect and remove your monster from play, even though I must relinquish his attack for the turn" but this statement caused Hakoda to smirk.

As the bubble was destroyed from the Swordsman's cut, the Dragon was set free on the field (3000/2500). Because you destroyed him outside of battle, his equipped monster was allowed to return to the field.

"Now we both have an even field, but that cannot due" and with Hakoda's words, his dragon began glowing brighter and brighter until… It exploded, wiping out all the cards on the field and in both players' hands.

It seemed rather obvious that Hakoda was in the middle of a game-winning strategy, so Jin decided to put a damper on his plans.

"Sorry Hakoda, but before you destroy my face down, I'll activate it. It's a trap card known as Twilight Duel, and the way it works is… Well basically we both draw until we get a monster, and whoever's is strongest is the one that will be summoned to the field. All other cards will be discarded; all other effects disregarded".

Hakoda was truly excited. That meant his Dragons effect wouldn't take away the rest of his opponent's life points. It may have seemed ridiculous for Jin to have set that trap when he did, but it certainly just saved him.

Hakoda was the first to claim a monster. It was a large green machine shaped like a cross between a fighter jet and a giant fan. Needless to say, it was a very awkward looking monster. Surprisingly though, it boasted an impressive 2400 attack points. That meant his opponent would have to pull out a real heavy hitter if he wanted to win.

The winner of the duel would be determined by this last draw. If Jin didn't draw a more powerful monster, his opponent would attack him directly and end it. But if he drew something stronger, then his opponent would adversely be opened to direct damage.

After 7 times of drawing either a spell or trap, he finally drew a monster, but unfortunately…

Unfortunately for Hakoda, it was the 2500 Atk point Solstice of Dark Magician.

Hakoda staggered as the black and white clothed version of the Dark Magician appeared on the field, his own monster fading away.

With one command from its master, the Magician blasted Hakoda and the rest of his life points, finally ending the duel.

The holograms faded away as both duelists returned to their typical demeanor, Jin thoroughly impressed with his win.

In the distance, Baken could vaguely be heard with cheering his friend on.

* * *

_Later on that day…_

It had been well past an hour after Jin's duel with Hakoda, and all of the applicants were finding out their scores. Keiko failed her duel exam for only using a single strategy and not having enough flexibility. She marched out of the facility incoherently mumbling something about broken rules.

Thanks to a good word from Mr. Ikora, Ryouu scored the same amount of points as his friend Nizone. Misui on the other hand happened to score higher than both boys. And of course this was something she would not let them forget any time soon. Ryouu and Nizone were more focused on which of the two deserved the higher score though. Misui didn't mind. She had the rest of the year to brag.

Baken's opponent was flunked under the status of no defense other than a strong offense. He didn't seem disappointed though, just said better luck next time.

And finally, among others, was Hakoda. It was apparent that Hakoda had been preparing for this day, his test scores were a testament to that. And combined with his impressive duel, he easily made it into Ra Yellow. He even seemed like a likely candidate to be bumped into Obelisk Blue.

Yep, everyone knew where they sat with the academy; that is except one.

"Where is that annoying sister of mine?" Nizone blared angrily. He hadn't seen her all day and was beginning to wonder if she was in trouble. After several minutes if his mindless ranting (and friends trying to console him), he received his answer.

Chancellor Yuki was standing in the middle of the auditorium, microphone in hand. "Well hello all of my past and future students" he began. "Tonight I have one more treat for all of you. It will be the last contested duel of the entire week, so I hope you enjoy it" Nizone stopped his ranted to see who the two competitors were.

"Our first competitor" the chancellor continued, "was the number one rookie of the previous year" he continued, making many of the academy students cheer with delight at seeing one of their best competing. "The infamous _'Dragon Tamer'_ of Obelisk Blue… Cloud Shenju!"

Then a boy walked out on the field, spiky, flowing orange hair, and a face that was made for movies. Cloud was undoubtedly one of the most popular students at the academy; his blue blazer seemingly defying gravity as he made his way to the duel field.

"And his challenger, an applicant that promises to duel like no other. She brags that she'll be the next Kaiser of the school, one day replacing Kesado… Nazonei Uzumaki!"

Nizone fell over anime style at this announcement. _'That ratty little bit…'_

Nazonei showed up on the stage opposite Cloud. Even though they were twins, it was very hard to tell Nizone and Nazonei were related at all.

She had long flowing locks that were a dark blonde, almost red color. And where Nizone's vibrant blue eyes stood, Nazonei had pearly white orbs. She was also a much more petite being than her twin. And where Nizone stood nearly 5'10, Nazonei was barely 5'2. She wore a cerulean blue skin tight jumpsuit, but the top was hanging off, the sleeves wrapped safely around her waist. To complete her outfit, she wore a white and pink tank top and pink gloves.

"And for all you spectators out there, if Nazonei wins this duel, she will not only be admitted into Duel Academy, but she will automatically be placed in Obelisk Blue." Most of the crowd had little faith in her, _"Cloud will stomp her out!"_

Nizone was fuming. "I just knew she would up and do something like this!"

NLP: 4000/CLP: 4000

With a smile on her face, Nazonei drew the top six cards from her deck; Cloud five. She was quick to engage in her turn. "Hidden Armory lets me take one equip spell from my deck and add it to my hand" she exclaimed cheerfully as she discarded the top card due to her card's adverse effect.

"Now I'll place one card face down. With that, I'll end my turn."

Nizone bit his lip. "There can only be one card she would be digging for. This Cloud dude better watch himself, yeah…"

Cloud drew from his deck, also wasting no time in employing his move. "I summon Spear Dragon"

Then the first monster appeared on the field. It was relatively small, about the size of a child. Its scales were a dull blue color; it's underbelly more of a beige tint than anything else. Its wings were mere extensions of its rather fragile-looking arms, though the things were tattered and unhealthy. As worn down as they were, it would come as no surprise if the dragon was no longer able to achieve flight. But its most noticeable feature was its elongated, spear like nose, hence its name (1900/0).

Cloud placed another card onto the field. "Because I have a Dragon type monster on the field, I can use the spell card Giant Stomp to destroy your face down and deal to you 500 points of damage"

Spear Dragon flew down and skewered Nazonei's face down. But even as her life points dropped to 3500, she held an upbeat smile on her face.

"That card was my Dummy Marker trap, and since it was destroyed, I get to draw a card!"

Cloud just looked on with distaste. "A bluff, huh? Guess you didn't have any real cards to protect you. Maybe your next turn will do you better. Spear Dragon, attack her directly." The dragon darted through the air, spear first. But before the mighty dragon could cause any damage, Nazonei discarded a card from her hand.

Then a small brown furball appeared, taking the blow that was meant for Nazonei. "I discard Kuriboh (300/200) so I won't take any damage!" Cloud just stared at the girl with an unamused look on his face. "Your bait was actually a distraction" he uttered in recognition. Then he place one card face down and ended his turn.

Nazonei promptly drew, causing Nizone to cringe. He knew fairly well that she was about to employ the main strategy of her deck.

"I'll summon one of my favorite monsters, Lil' Windblade Glider!" and as Nazonei placed the card on her monster zone, her first monster appeared on the field.

It was a small boy dressed in elaborate green armor. Under such armor was a plain wait skin-tight suit. Aside from that, the elaborate monster also had detached wings floating behind his person (400/1500).

"Next, I'll equip him with spell card Rasengan!" as the young boy held out his hand, a spiraling ball of pure energy was created, hovering just over his palm. "Now whenever my monster attacks, the monster he battles will automatically be destroyed (considered destroyed by battle), and neither of us will take damage."

Then the young warrior leapt at the much more powerful dragon and slammed the powerful blast dead into the dragon's chest.

The impact was amazing, causing the entire stadium to road from the force.

The dragon was destroyed instantly.

Cloud looked on with amusement.

"If I understand this correctly, then that equip card only works when your monster attacks; so if I attack it, then you'll lose your monster, and your Rasengan" the Dragon Tamer stated informatively.

"True…" Nazonei carried on mischievously, "but when Lil' Windblade Glider destroys a monster, you are forced to discard an amount of cards equal to that monsters level… That means your whole hand!"

But Cloud also swung into an unexpected attitude. He began to clap.

"Nice move Uzumaki-san, you were able to destroy my field and deplete my hand" the boy ushered as he placed his hand into his graveyard pile.

Then two cards popped out of his deck, and one from his graveyard, which he took. "But don't think I wasn't prepared" the boy all but roared as his demeanor attitude to its nature, aggressive ways. "First off, one of the cards in my hand was Repayment of the Losses, which allows me to draw one card because it was sent directly to the graveyard. Then" he continued as a new monster appeared on the field. This monster was a tall man covered in yellow armor with dragon designs. He carried around a flute as his weapon (1400/800).

This monster is _'A- Assembler: Dragon Knight'._ He is automatically summoned to the field if he's sent to the grave from my hand. Then Cloud's facedown card flipped up. Now I active Phoenix Rising, so since my dragon was destroyed, I can summon my other card, 'O- Overkill: dragon Knight'" and at that, a green armored warrior appeared, wearing savage gauntlets that had large extended claws protruding from them (1800/600).

Then the two monsters powered up (1900) and (2300). "Thanks to Outrage's effect, all Dragon Knights gain 500 attack points.

As Nazonei placed a facedown to end her turn, Cloud drew to start his. Then a small smirk spread across the young duelist's visage.

"First off, United Structure will allow me to summon a Warrior monster from my hand since I have one on my field" then another one of his Dragon Warriors appeared on the field. This one had red armor, and carried around a whip. He was easily distinguished as the leader of the bunch. His attack points soared as he was powered up by Outrage (3000/1800).

"This is D- Destiny: Dragon Knight and as long as he's on the field, my other Dragon Knights' effects are double (O: 2800) (A: 2400).

'_Oh no, that meant Outrage was now juicing out 1000 attack points!'_

"But Assembler also has an effect. Once per turn, I can summon a Dragon Knight from my deck, but thanks to Destiny, I can instead call out my remaining two" then an orange and a blue variation of the Warriors appeared on the field. Meet _'R- Rage: Dragon Knight_ (2600/1000)' and '_G- Gravity: Dragon Knight _(2500/1200)'.

The crowd began to cheer for their previous 1st year champ. In only one of his own turns, he'd managed to summon out all five of his signature monsters. And because he had not yet normal summoned, they knew what was about to come next.

"Cloud!" they all chanted loudly.

"Cloud!"

"Cloud!"

"Cloud!"

Nazonei herself stared at the boy's army with a nervous smile. She wasn't quite sure if she would be able to survive this turn and turn the duel around.

A vicious grin caught onto Cloud's face. "The crowd wants more. So let's give them more!" and with that, he played the last card in his hand. "Because I haven't normal summoned this turn, I can send all five of my Dragon Knights to the graveyard to summon my ultimate monster." Then a giant off a monster appeared on the field. Like the Dragon Knights, it wore elaborate purple and black armor shaped like a dragon. From its chest plate protruded the head of a dragon, its maw opened as if it were about to launch a fire blast. And in its hand was a giant dual edged blade, much larger than even Buster Blader's (3600/3300).

Nazonei, although fearful of the new beast, was curious as to why he sent five monsters to the graveyard to summon this one out. It was powerful for sure, but together, those five weaker monsters could've won him the duel. Everything was straightened up as Cloud explained his monster's effect.

"My almighty DRAGO- Doom Bringer can attack three times a turn" Nazonei's eyes almost bulged out of her head as she heard this.

Then the Dragon/swordsman flew at the small Wind monster with blinding speed, cleaving it in two before most people even realized it began its attack. But instead of the usual burst off pixels that follows a monster's destruction, the little warrior disappeared in a poof of smoke only to be replaced by another rapidly approaching Glider, Rasengan in hand and fully intent on destroying the beast. "I activated my Clone Barrage trap card" Nazonei spoke confidently as her facedown flipped face up.

"It allows me to send the monster you declared an attack on to the grave so I can summon another copy from my deck. Then that copy is equipped with a Rasengan and your attacking monster is destroyed" she was pleased with her explanation, but soon lost hope as she saw the smirk on Cloud's face.

His monster easily caught Lil' Windblade Glider by the hand and threw him back to Nazonei's side of the field.

"Sorry Uzumaki-san, but because all five of my Dragon Knights are in my grave, my DRAGO won't be affected by any of your tricks!"

"Fine, I'll place my monster in defense" she issued. "It doesn't matter" Cloud mocked. "My monster still has two attacks left; he can wipe out your monster _and your life points_! He also inflicts piercing damage"

Then the ferocious dragon lunged at the defending monster, destroying it with a shoulder black. "Now DRAGO, end this" then the chest plate began to gather energy into the dragon's mouth. After a few moments of gathering, it shot a powerful beam of searing hot energy that completely engulfed the young girl.

Everyone cheered Cloud on as his monster returned to his side of the field. But as the dust settled, Nazonei was still standing, albeit very wobbly (N: 1400). "Sorry to disappoint, but I removed the Necro Guardna in graveyard (from the effect of Hidden Armory) from play to keep my life points safe. I'm still in the game!"

Cloud looked back at his opponent; obviously he was impressed that she'd been lucky enough to send that monster to her graveyard. "Fine Uzumaki-san, I shall just finish you off next time. Now take your turn" the Dragon Tamer ordered.

Nazonei wordlessly drew her card, activating Magical Mallet to reshuffle her hand into her deck for fresh new cards. Her eyes lit up with hope as she saw the cards she drew. She summoned her wind type warrior, HurriKid to the field (1600/1300). This monster was just an average boy surrounded by gale force winds. "Now I pay 500 life points to take Rasengan from my deck and equip it to HurriKid (N: 900)" then the boy held the familiar attack in his palm.

"Didn't you learn? That stupid card won't save you from my monster! It's useless!"

Nazonei just ignored her opponent and continued with her turn. "Now I play Element Empowerment. This will give my Rasengan an added effect based on the element that my monster is" then the small ball grew in size and took the form of a giant swirling shuriken.

"Because my monster is a WIND type, it changes my monster's original Atk points to 3000 while he attacks, gives him the ability to attack all monsters on your field at the same time, and causes piercing damage" Cloud just stared doubtfully. Her monster was still too weak after all.

"Not done yet. I activate HurriKid's effect and remove a copy of him from my deck to increase his Atk points by 1000 for the remainder of the turn" and as the crowd watched with astounded faces, the hurricane kid charged at the dragon, his 4000 Atk points making him the strongest monster on the field.

Cloud just smirked as his monster launched another blast from its chest plate, completely incinerating the boy before he even had a change to hit the RasenShuriken.

"Sorry Uzumaki-san, but because I have all the Dragon Knights in my grave, my monster returns the battling monster's points to their original stats. Nazonei cringed as her life points dropped to a pitiful 300.

Nizone couldn't help but feel bad for his twin. He'd never seen her get so thoroughly dominated, and didn't like it at all_. 'Come on sissy, you've just gotta win. I'm not going to the Academy without you…'_

"I'll set a card and end with Swords of Revealing Light. Now you won't be able to attack for three turns".

Cloud laughed aloud as he drew his card. My monster is unaffected by such card effects, I already told you that!" then the large beast bounced from sword to sword, hell bent on taking out the female duelist. As he slashed at her, three familiar maidens stood between his sword and the young girl. Waboku was activated.

"Heh, your distraction was actually baited, and I fell for it. Again. Fine Uzumaki-san, but I promise your next turn will be your last".

Nazonei chuckled at Cloud's repeated mistake. Then she gathered up the energy to draw from her deck. "Pot of Greed allows me to draw twice" she pulled off the top two cards in her hand and formulated a strategy in her head.

"I'll cast the powers of Monster Reborn" she said with the familiar smile on her face as HurriKid reappeared on the field. Then she removed her final copy, causing her monster's Atk points to once again rise to 2600. Now I shall remove my RasenShuriken in the grave from play to return all the cards in your grave to your deck. Now you take 1000 points of damage"

Cloud was shocked as he instantly realized he no longer had the protection of his Dragon Knights on his DRAGO. (C: 3000)

"Now to end this… I equip HurriKid with Oodama Rasengan" then HurriKid held out his hand as a huge version of the original Rasengan appeared in it (Atk: 3600). "This will increase his Atk points by 1000. Not only that, but it also gives him the ability to deal you damage equal to the attack of every monster he destroys in battle. This is game over" was the last words off the duel.

Then HurriKid and DRAGO collided, destroying them both. But from the dust and debris flew the giant ball of swirling energy. It slammed dead into Cloud's chest, completely depleting his life points.

The crowd was in a complete uproar; they couldn't believe Cloud was defeated by an applicant.

"And Nazonei has won" Chancellor Yuki yelled loudly, increasing the already exploding excitement factor. Then he turned to the girl and congratulated her. "Welcome to Obelisk Blue young lady".

Nazonei smiled one last time as she fell over, exhausted from her duel. But before she hit the floor, Nizone caught her.

"Come on sis, let's go get you a seat."

* * *

**And that's the end of chapter 3! I thank Snibbity Dibbity for his Twilight Renewal and his Repayment of the Losses. Neither of those cards were of my own creation. Anyway, Nazonei has officially established herself as the number 1 rookie of the year. Next time, the gang arrives at the Academy and all get settled in to their respective dorms. Each of them go to classes, make new friends, and maybe even a few rivals. But who is this? A Slifer Red, what purpose could he have concerning the gang?**

**Next time on YuGiOh GX: Spirits UnBound, Chapter 4: Arrival to Duel Academy!**

**Nizone: Oh here we go. It's always something with you Nazonei, yeah!**

**Nazonei: I can't help. People just like me more ;-P**

**As always, please Read and Review. It will be greatly appreciated!**

**Update:**

******And there is the end to chapter 3. As always, feedback is greatly appreciated. I look forward to hearing what you have to say, and constructive criticism is always welcomed.**

**This is Rizengan01 signing out**


	3. Exam Finals! Jin Faces his Opponent!

**Author's Note: Like last time, this chapter will also feature two duels. This was not intentional, but hey, what can you do? Also, Chaos Emperor Dragon's name shall instead be treated as Chaos Luster Dragon for intensive reasons. Anyway, this chapter will introduce Nizone's sister, so hopefully that will turn out well. As always, hope you enjoy.**

**Update:**

**As of August 2nd, 2012, this chapter has been updated. Hopefully now it will be more enjoyable for all you readers**

_**YuGiOh GX: Spirits UnBound**_

**Chapter 3: Exam Finals, Jin faces his opponent!**

* * *

Ryouu returned to the stands where his friends were eagerly awaiting him. When he arrived, they all discussed their own duels.

Nizone had won with the power of his Rasengan based fire deck. The power of the deck allowed him to win in very few turns. Misui bragged about how she did even better; she used a powerful water deck to deliver an effective OTK.

Ryouu felt somewhat shy about his duel. He took the longest to win his duel and was also the only one to suffer any damage. But he didn't let his friends know it; instead he focused on about the powerful combo he used to end the duel.

While the trio were conversing over the duels and their written exam, the rest of the applicants were finishing their duels. In fact, there were only about four duels left, all in the final phases.

After another half hour or so, it was Jin's turn to step to the plate.

The young Slifer Red made his way to the dueling arena; thanks to Baken, he was hyped and ready to duel.

But as the boy stood at the field, he saw an image that significantly dropped his morale; his opponent.

The boy made his way to the duel field opposite Jin, stone cold expression on his face. He wore a skin tight military vest and cargo pants. His hair was spiky but still slicked back, and he had a ridiculously long ponytail. Most of his hair was a midnight purple but parts of his hair were green-ish streaks. His eyes were also a crystal black color.

Jin shivered with doubt as he watched his opponent approach. "My name is Hakoda, and I will be your opponent" the applicant stated as he drew his starting hand, not waiting on Jin to draw as he began his turn.

* * *

_Up at the stands…_

"That's one rough looking duelist, yeah" Nizone muttered to no one in particular. Misui and Ryouu silently nodded. A few meters away from them, a particular blonde haired second year Ra Yellow began to root for his friend, catching the trio off guard.

"You can do it Jin! Don't let this guy intimidate you, show him your stuff!"

* * *

_Back on the duel field…_

Hakoda stared at the six cards for but a moment, meticulously forming a strategy. "I'll activate the spell card Luster Charge which will allow me add a particular monster to my hand. I shall then summon that monster" the crystal eyed boy stated as he played the card that he'd just added to his hand. "Arise, Luster Dragon!"

Then an impressive sapphire dragon appeared on the field, its 1900 attack points making it a force to be reckoned with.

"Now I'll place one card facedown and end my turn".

Jin summoned up the morale he came into the duel with and drew the top six cards of his deck.

"Because I do not have any monsters in the graveyard, I can summon my Rune Warrior (Atk: 1000)" then a pudgy white clad swordsman appeared on the field, his sword about the size of a large knife.

Hakoda stared on in with apprehension at the thought of the monster that stood before him. _'No one would intentionally use such a weak monster to defend against something as powerful as my Luster Dragon…"_

"Now I'll use my normal summon to call out Winged Alabaster" Jin finished. Then a dark bat-humanoid appeared on the field next to the Rune Warrior (Atk: 1200). "I end my turn" Jin said confidently.

Hakoda drew, and then stared at the field cautiously_. 'I'm not sure what kind of game this kid is playing, but I'll take the bait'_.

"I'll play my Ancient Rules spell card so now I can summon a level 5 or higher normal monster without a tribute for this turn. And I have just the monster in mind" then a giant emerald dragon appeared next to the sapphire one. This one was even more massive, and also more beautiful.

"I summon the Luster Dragon #2" the dragon let out a powerful roar as it established itself as the strongest monster on the field (Atk: 2400).

"Now I'll have my two monsters attack yours" the dragons both attacked Jin's defending monsters, but Alabaster faded into the darkness, avoiding the emerald dragon's attack.

"Sorry but my Alabaster cannot be destroyed if there is a LIGHT monster on the field, or if a LIGHT monster has already been destroyed this turn" Jin stated hesitantly, even as his life points dropped to 1900.

Hakoda cringed. _'Darn'_ he though_. 'That means that monster will be around another turn. What is he planning?'_

"I end my turn" the applicant declared.

Jin wordlessly snatched the top card from his deck before glancing at it. "Hah, now I can steal the lead" the Slifer said semi-confidently as he played the card he just drew.

"The spell card Twilight Appraisal lets me remove the LIGHT monster in my graveyard from play to increase the power of the DARK monster on the field" and as Rune Warrior was placed in Jin's back pocket, Alabaster was shrouded in a white aura that jumped his power to 2200.

"But it doesn't end yet. I equip my monster with Black Pendant to power him up by another 500" and as the unholy necklace appeared around the winged fiend's neck, his attack points further increased to 2700, effectively making him the strongest monster on the field.

"Now attack his Luster Dragon #2 with Shadow Storm!" but as he witnessed the disappointed look on his opponent's face, he immediately wished he could've withdrew the attack.

"Fool. This isn't just a contest to see who can bring about the most powerful monster" the crystal eyed boy stated with disapproval hinted in his voice. Then as the shadows neared his monster, he flipped over his face down trap card.

"It's called Luster Purge and can only be activated when you declare an attack against one of my 'Luster' monsters. First I must discard a card from my hand" which he promptly did. "I can now negate your attack and remove the attacking monster from play. Unfortunately for you, this card's effect cannot be negated!"

Then, much to Jin's horror, the emerald dragon fired a pulsating blast that ripped through the shadows and smashed into Alabaster, turning him into little more than a shower off pixels. Due to the effect of Black Pendant, Hakoda lost a negligible amount of life points (3500).

Jin stood there looking mortified. He'd constructed his deck very poorly, and because of that, had little he could do. "I'll set a monster facedown and a spell or trap. That'll end my turn."

But even as Hakoda drew his card, he wasn't buying into Jin's bluff. "You made an amateur mistake; it's not hard to figure out why you are in the lowest ranked dorm in the school. Pity, compared to your colleagues, you seem completely insignificant."

As Jin frowned, and Baken yelled out a few unsightly words, Hakoda continued his turn.

"I'll start by activating Graceful Charity. With this spell card, I can draw three new cards at the cost of discarding two." True to his word, Hakoda slid the top three cards off his deck. After rearranging his hand, he chose two cards and placed them in his graveyard slot.

"Now this is where the duel gets fun. One of the cards I discarded was the ever-reliable Magician of Faith (300/400). I would also like to mention that the monster I discarded to activate Luster Purge was the equally famous Old Vindictive Magician (450/600)."

"Okay… What's the point of telling me this?"

Hakoda closed his eyes and tilted his head to the floor. Jin was not sure if this was insulting or not, but he was willing to bet it was. His face scrunched in annoyance.

"You yourself use a deck that balances the forces of light and dark, and yet you fail to realize the setup I have created? Fine, allow me to demonstrate."

Suddenly, a large amount of pixels began to gather in front of the young crystal eyed applicant. They began to take the shape of a giant monstrous being, dwarfing both other Luster Dragons. It was clearly a dragon, larger than any other that had been on the field so far. It had muscular human-like arms, and a long giraffe-like neck. It had powerful, bestial hind legs, and a terrifying maw. Its wings were just as dynamic as any other portion of its majestic body. Its scales were an emerald green, lined with solid gold trim. It was truly a wonderful sight to behold (Atk: 3000/Def: 2500).

As Jin stared at the towering beast, he managed to squeeze out a sentence between chattering teeth.

"Wha… What the heck is that thing?!"

"This is the engine of your destruction. It's the almighty Chaos Luster Dragon- Envoy of the End, and it can only be summoned by removing one light and one dark monster from my grave…" Then Luster Dragon #2 effortlessly destroyed Jin's facedown monster with one swipe of its mighty tail.

Hakoda gave Jin that same disapproving frown. "I wanted to see more skill than what you've shown me so far. Needless to say I am disgusted" then he lifted his hand and directed his index finger directly towards his Slifer Red opponent.

"Wait…" Jin uttered, his head tilted down so that his eyes were overshadowed by his purple bangs. A sense of shame could be detected in his voice as he spoke.

"Give me one more turn to prove myself. You've obviously shown that you have the skill to be in this facility…" and as the boy spoke, bangs still covering his face, his voice began to rattle as he tried to hold down his emotions.

"So let me prove I deserve to be here!" Jin screamed as he lifted his head up, revealing much stronger scarlet eyes. Much more demanding scarlet eyes…

Hakoda was so taken aback by the change in the young man's demeanor (and so was Baken for that matter) that he couldn't help but give in to his demands.

Jin understood by Hakoda's body language alone that he was sparing him, so he quickly pulled the top card off his deck and gave it a hard stare, _'perfect…'_

"I'll show you power" Jin said in a much more demanding voice. Gone was the fragility that he once spoke was. It was almost as if he was a completely different person.

"I'll discard my LIGHT attribute Sickle Fairy to use its effect and decrease your Chaos Luster Dragon's attack points by 1000" and as he sent the card to the grave, a transparent angel placed restricting chains on the dragon, decreasing its points to a less impressive 2000.

Hakoda nodded in approval.

Then Jin depressed a button on his duel disk, activating the facedown card from the previous turn. "I activate my Reflux Index trap card. It can only be activated when a LIGHT or DARK monster is discarded to the grave to activate an effect. I can then discard another monster of the same attribute to replay the active effect. I'll use another Sickle Fairy" then another copy of Sickle Fairy slid from the boy's deck. He immediately placed it in the graveyard, and Chaos Luster Dragon's attack points dropped to a measly 1000.

"I'm much more impressed now that you've decided to take this duel seriously" Hakoda acknowledged. Jin merely nodded and continued his turn.

"The best part is only just beginning. I can feel it" he interjected as he placed another card on his duel disk.

"This spell card, Twilight Solstice will remove one LIGHT and DARK monster from my grave and return them to my deck. Then I can draw two more cards" and his facedown monster from the previous turn and a copy of Sickle Fairy were promptly returned. Then he drew two more cards, one of which was immediately abandoned for the other.

'_I knew you could do it Jin'_ Baken thought proudly as he watched his best friend put on a show. _'Now show them how you get down!'_

A few seats away, the trio were also watching the duel. Both Ryouu and Misui were completely taken aback from Jin's sudden change in demeanor. Only Nizone was maintaining his composure. And as per usual, he had a mischievous grin on his face.

"The kid's got spunk, yeah!"

Even the chancellor was enjoying the duel. His familiar smile was present on his face. He was glad that Hakoda was such a powerful duelist, and even more pleased that Jin was breaking out of his shell.

His smile grew even larger as he enjoyed the show.

* * *

_Back at the duel field…_

"This is the card I've been waiting for. The card that can win this duel for me" Jin said coolly as he placed it on the field, after removing the last two monsters in his grave. Hakoda stared in bewilderment at the new monster.

"Not only does this monster match yours, but in Chaos Luster Dragon's weakened condition, my monster surpasses it!" then a majestic armored man appeared on the field. He carried around a shield that matched his Greco-Roman armor, and a sword that was only suitable for the world's finest swordsmen. "Meet my Black Luster Soldier- Envoy of the Beginning (3000/2500)!"

"Hakoda, if this monster destroys one of your monsters in battle, he can attack again" and much to Hakoda's horror, Jin demonstrated his monster's effect through actual battle. The Soldier cocked his sword back, and lunged at Chaos Luster Dragon, chopping its head clean off and dealing a mighty blow to Hakoda's life points (1500).

Then the warrior did a midair summersault and brought its sword down directly on Luster Dragon's skull, obliterating it instantly and nearing his opponent's life points to the zero mark (400).

"Now my monster has just enough attack points to end this duel with this next attack" Jin taunted with the unfamiliar smirk on his face. Hakoda on the other hand seemed to be in a daze. He couldn't believe that was about to lose a duel that he had_ complete_ control over one mere turn ago, and to _that_ monster no less. It seemed like the type of last-minute heroics you see in a comic book. But this was no comic, this was real. It was his life!

_'Dammit this cannot be! I cannot fail this…'_

Then Jin ushered in what was sure to be the final words of the duel "Black Luster Soldier, destroy Luster Dragon #2 and end this duel" and with that, the soldier, sword still in the cranium of the slain dragon, flung his shield at the emerald beast, decapitating it. But Hakoda received no damage.

"That was too close" the crystal eyed boy said as he discarded a card from his hand.

"The last card in my hand was Battle Innuendo. Now because you destroyed my monsters, your battle phase is ended without me losing anymore life points."

Jin smirked at his now defensive opponent and set a card face down to end his turn.

Hakoda started his turn, he discarded the final card he held and drew five new cards. "Because Twilight Renewal was the only card in my hand, I got to draw 5 new ones". Then he drew his sixth.

Hakoda then smiled. Not at the cards he held in his hand, but at the duel itself. Both Hakoda and Jin used cards that focused on LIGHT and DARK based monsters, and both of them had an Envoy card. Hakoda appreciated facing such a capable opponent, especial one so similar to himself.

"Your monster is powerful, Jin. But it won't be able to break through my defenses. I summon my Shield Prison Unit in defense position (0/1000)" then a giant bubble appeared on the field. Another smaller bubble then rose from the ground, Chaos Luster Dragon in the center of it. The smaller bubble joined with the larger bubble and kept the dragon inside of it all (0/4000).

"When this monster is summoned to the field, I can equip a Luster monster from my grave and equip it to him. His power boost is relative to that monster's attack points."

Then he placed one card face down on the field and ended his turn.

Jin drew, giving him but a single card in hand. "This card is of no use to me" then he turned his sights on his prized monster. "I shall active my Soldier's final effect and remove your monster from play, even though I must relinquish his attack for the turn" but this statement caused Hakoda to smirk.

As the bubble was destroyed from the Swordsman's cut, the Dragon was set free on the field (3000/2500). Because you destroyed him outside of battle, his equipped monster was allowed to return to the field.

"Now we both have an even field, but that cannot due" and with Hakoda's words, his dragon began glowing brighter and brighter until… It exploded, wiping out all the cards on the field and in both players' hands.

It seemed rather obvious that Hakoda was in the middle of a game-winning strategy, so Jin decided to put a damper on his plans.

"Sorry Hakoda, but before you destroy my face down, I'll activate it. It's a trap card known as Twilight Duel, and the way it works is… Well basically we both draw until we get a monster, and whoever's is strongest is the one that will be summoned to the field. All other cards will be discarded; all other effects disregarded".

Hakoda was truly excited. That meant his Dragons effect wouldn't take away the rest of his opponent's life points. It may have seemed ridiculous for Jin to have set that trap when he did, but it certainly just saved him.

Hakoda was the first to claim a monster. It was a large green machine shaped like a cross between a fighter jet and a giant fan. Needless to say, it was a very awkward looking monster. Surprisingly though, it boasted an impressive 2400 attack points. That meant his opponent would have to pull out a real heavy hitter if he wanted to win.

The winner of the duel would be determined by this last draw. If Jin didn't draw a more powerful monster, his opponent would attack him directly and end it. But if he drew something stronger, then his opponent would adversely be opened to direct damage.

After 7 times of drawing either a spell or trap, he finally drew a monster, but unfortunately…

Unfortunately for Hakoda, it was the 2500 Atk point Solstice of Dark Magician.

Hakoda staggered as the black and white clothed version of the Dark Magician appeared on the field, his own monster fading away.

With one command from its master, the Magician blasted Hakoda and the rest of his life points, finally ending the duel.

The holograms faded away as both duelists returned to their typical demeanor, Jin thoroughly impressed with his win.

In the distance, Baken could vaguely be heard with cheering his friend on.

* * *

_Later on that day…_

It had been well past an hour after Jin's duel with Hakoda, and all of the applicants were finding out their scores. Keiko failed her duel exam for only using a single strategy and not having enough flexibility. She marched out of the facility incoherently mumbling something about broken rules.

Thanks to a good word from Mr. Ikora, Ryouu scored the same amount of points as his friend Nizone. Misui on the other hand happened to score higher than both boys. And of course this was something she would not let them forget any time soon. Ryouu and Nizone were more focused on which of the two deserved the higher score though. Misui didn't mind. She had the rest of the year to brag.

Baken's opponent was flunked under the status of no defense other than a strong offense. He didn't seem disappointed though, just said better luck next time.

And finally, among others, was Hakoda. It was apparent that Hakoda had been preparing for this day, his test scores were a testament to that. And combined with his impressive duel, he easily made it into Ra Yellow. He even seemed like a likely candidate to be bumped into Obelisk Blue.

Yep, everyone knew where they sat with the academy; that is except one.

"Where is that annoying sister of mine?" Nizone blared angrily. He hadn't seen her all day and was beginning to wonder if she was in trouble. After several minutes if his mindless ranting (and friends trying to console him), he received his answer.

Chancellor Yuki was standing in the middle of the auditorium, microphone in hand. "Well hello all of my past and future students" he began. "Tonight I have one more treat for all of you. It will be the last contested duel of the entire week, so I hope you enjoy it" Nizone stopped his ranted to see who the two competitors were.

"Our first competitor" the chancellor continued, "was the number one rookie of the previous year" he continued, making many of the academy students cheer with delight at seeing one of their best competing. "The infamous _'Dragon Tamer'_ of Obelisk Blue… Cloud Shenju!"

Then a boy walked out on the field, spiky, flowing orange hair, and a face that was made for movies. Cloud was undoubtedly one of the most popular students at the academy; his blue blazer seemingly defying gravity as he made his way to the duel field.

"And his challenger, an applicant that promises to duel like no other. She brags that she'll be the next Kaiser of the school, one day replacing Kesado… Nazonei Uzumaki!"

Nizone fell over anime style at this announcement. _'That ratty little bit…'_

Nazonei showed up on the stage opposite Cloud. Even though they were twins, it was very hard to tell Nizone and Nazonei were related at all.

She had long flowing locks that were a dark blonde, almost red color. And where Nizone's vibrant blue eyes stood, Nazonei had pearly white orbs. She was also a much more petite being than her twin. And where Nizone stood nearly 5'10, Nazonei was barely 5'2. She wore a cerulean blue skin tight jumpsuit, but the top was hanging off, the sleeves wrapped safely around her waist. To complete her outfit, she wore a white and pink tank top and pink gloves.

"And for all you spectators out there, if Nazonei wins this duel, she will not only be admitted into Duel Academy, but she will automatically be placed in Obelisk Blue." Most of the crowd had little faith in her, _"Cloud will stomp her out!"_

Nizone was fuming. "I just knew she would up and do something like this!"

NLP: 4000/CLP: 4000

With a smile on her face, Nazonei drew the top six cards from her deck; Cloud five. She was quick to engage in her turn. "Hidden Armory lets me take one equip spell from my deck and add it to my hand" she exclaimed cheerfully as she discarded the top card due to her card's adverse effect.

"Now I'll place one card face down. With that, I'll end my turn."

Nizone bit his lip. "There can only be one card she would be digging for. This Cloud dude better watch himself, yeah…"

Cloud drew from his deck, also wasting no time in employing his move. "I summon Spear Dragon"

Then the first monster appeared on the field. It was relatively small, about the size of a child. Its scales were a dull blue color; it's underbelly more of a beige tint than anything else. Its wings were mere extensions of its rather fragile-looking arms, though the things were tattered and unhealthy. As worn down as they were, it would come as no surprise if the dragon was no longer able to achieve flight. But its most noticeable feature was its elongated, spear like nose, hence its name (1900/0).

Cloud placed another card onto the field. "Because I have a Dragon type monster on the field, I can use the spell card Giant Stomp to destroy your face down and deal to you 500 points of damage"

Spear Dragon flew down and skewered Nazonei's face down. But even as her life points dropped to 3500, she held an upbeat smile on her face.

"That card was my Dummy Marker trap, and since it was destroyed, I get to draw a card!"

Cloud just looked on with distaste. "A bluff, huh? Guess you didn't have any real cards to protect you. Maybe your next turn will do you better. Spear Dragon, attack her directly." The dragon darted through the air, spear first. But before the mighty dragon could cause any damage, Nazonei discarded a card from her hand.

Then a small brown furball appeared, taking the blow that was meant for Nazonei. "I discard Kuriboh (300/200) so I won't take any damage!" Cloud just stared at the girl with an unamused look on his face. "Your bait was actually a distraction" he uttered in recognition. Then he place one card face down and ended his turn.

Nazonei promptly drew, causing Nizone to cringe. He knew fairly well that she was about to employ the main strategy of her deck.

"I'll summon one of my favorite monsters, Lil' Windblade Glider!" and as Nazonei placed the card on her monster zone, her first monster appeared on the field.

It was a small boy dressed in elaborate green armor. Under such armor was a plain wait skin-tight suit. Aside from that, the elaborate monster also had detached wings floating behind his person (400/1500).

"Next, I'll equip him with spell card Rasengan!" as the young boy held out his hand, a spiraling ball of pure energy was created, hovering just over his palm. "Now whenever my monster attacks, the monster he battles will automatically be destroyed (considered destroyed by battle), and neither of us will take damage."

Then the young warrior leapt at the much more powerful dragon and slammed the powerful blast dead into the dragon's chest.

The impact was amazing, causing the entire stadium to road from the force.

The dragon was destroyed instantly.

Cloud looked on with amusement.

"If I understand this correctly, then that equip card only works when your monster attacks; so if I attack it, then you'll lose your monster, and your Rasengan" the Dragon Tamer stated informatively.

"True…" Nazonei carried on mischievously, "but when Lil' Windblade Glider destroys a monster, you are forced to discard an amount of cards equal to that monsters level… That means your whole hand!"

But Cloud also swung into an unexpected attitude. He began to clap.

"Nice move Uzumaki-san, you were able to destroy my field and deplete my hand" the boy ushered as he placed his hand into his graveyard pile.

Then two cards popped out of his deck, and one from his graveyard, which he took. "But don't think I wasn't prepared" the boy all but roared as his demeanor attitude to its nature, aggressive ways. "First off, one of the cards in my hand was Repayment of the Losses, which allows me to draw one card because it was sent directly to the graveyard. Then" he continued as a new monster appeared on the field. This monster was a tall man covered in yellow armor with dragon designs. He carried around a flute as his weapon (1400/800).

This monster is _'A- Assembler: Dragon Knight'._ He is automatically summoned to the field if he's sent to the grave from my hand. Then Cloud's facedown card flipped up. Now I active Phoenix Rising, so since my dragon was destroyed, I can summon my other card, 'O- Overkill: dragon Knight'" and at that, a green armored warrior appeared, wearing savage gauntlets that had large extended claws protruding from them (1800/600).

Then the two monsters powered up (1900) and (2300). "Thanks to Outrage's effect, all Dragon Knights gain 500 attack points.

As Nazonei placed a facedown to end her turn, Cloud drew to start his. Then a small smirk spread across the young duelist's visage.

"First off, United Structure will allow me to summon a Warrior monster from my hand since I have one on my field" then another one of his Dragon Warriors appeared on the field. This one had red armor, and carried around a whip. He was easily distinguished as the leader of the bunch. His attack points soared as he was powered up by Outrage (3000/1800).

"This is D- Destiny: Dragon Knight and as long as he's on the field, my other Dragon Knights' effects are double (O: 2800) (A: 2400).

'_Oh no, that meant Outrage was now juicing out 1000 attack points!'_

"But Assembler also has an effect. Once per turn, I can summon a Dragon Knight from my deck, but thanks to Destiny, I can instead call out my remaining two" then an orange and a blue variation of the Warriors appeared on the field. Meet _'R- Rage: Dragon Knight_ (2600/1000)' and '_G- Gravity: Dragon Knight _(2500/1200)'.

The crowd began to cheer for their previous 1st year champ. In only one of his own turns, he'd managed to summon out all five of his signature monsters. And because he had not yet normal summoned, they knew what was about to come next.

"Cloud!" they all chanted loudly.

"Cloud!"

"Cloud!"

"Cloud!"

Nazonei herself stared at the boy's army with a nervous smile. She wasn't quite sure if she would be able to survive this turn and turn the duel around.

A vicious grin caught onto Cloud's face. "The crowd wants more. So let's give them more!" and with that, he played the last card in his hand. "Because I haven't normal summoned this turn, I can send all five of my Dragon Knights to the graveyard to summon my ultimate monster." Then a giant off a monster appeared on the field. Like the Dragon Knights, it wore elaborate purple and black armor shaped like a dragon. From its chest plate protruded the head of a dragon, its maw opened as if it were about to launch a fire blast. And in its hand was a giant dual edged blade, much larger than even Buster Blader's (3600/3300).

Nazonei, although fearful of the new beast, was curious as to why he sent five monsters to the graveyard to summon this one out. It was powerful for sure, but together, those five weaker monsters could've won him the duel. Everything was straightened up as Cloud explained his monster's effect.

"My almighty DRAGO- Doom Bringer can attack three times a turn" Nazonei's eyes almost bulged out of her head as she heard this.

Then the Dragon/swordsman flew at the small Wind monster with blinding speed, cleaving it in two before most people even realized it began its attack. But instead of the usual burst off pixels that follows a monster's destruction, the little warrior disappeared in a poof of smoke only to be replaced by another rapidly approaching Glider, Rasengan in hand and fully intent on destroying the beast. "I activated my Clone Barrage trap card" Nazonei spoke confidently as her facedown flipped face up.

"It allows me to send the monster you declared an attack on to the grave so I can summon another copy from my deck. Then that copy is equipped with a Rasengan and your attacking monster is destroyed" she was pleased with her explanation, but soon lost hope as she saw the smirk on Cloud's face.

His monster easily caught Lil' Windblade Glider by the hand and threw him back to Nazonei's side of the field.

"Sorry Uzumaki-san, but because all five of my Dragon Knights are in my grave, my DRAGO won't be affected by any of your tricks!"

"Fine, I'll place my monster in defense" she issued. "It doesn't matter" Cloud mocked. "My monster still has two attacks left; he can wipe out your monster _and your life points_! He also inflicts piercing damage"

Then the ferocious dragon lunged at the defending monster, destroying it with a shoulder black. "Now DRAGO, end this" then the chest plate began to gather energy into the dragon's mouth. After a few moments of gathering, it shot a powerful beam of searing hot energy that completely engulfed the young girl.

Everyone cheered Cloud on as his monster returned to his side of the field. But as the dust settled, Nazonei was still standing, albeit very wobbly (N: 1400). "Sorry to disappoint, but I removed the Necro Guardna in graveyard (from the effect of Hidden Armory) from play to keep my life points safe. I'm still in the game!"

Cloud looked back at his opponent; obviously he was impressed that she'd been lucky enough to send that monster to her graveyard. "Fine Uzumaki-san, I shall just finish you off next time. Now take your turn" the Dragon Tamer ordered.

Nazonei wordlessly drew her card, activating Magical Mallet to reshuffle her hand into her deck for fresh new cards. Her eyes lit up with hope as she saw the cards she drew. She summoned her wind type warrior, HurriKid to the field (1600/1300). This monster was just an average boy surrounded by gale force winds. "Now I pay 500 life points to take Rasengan from my deck and equip it to HurriKid (N: 900)" then the boy held the familiar attack in his palm.

"Didn't you learn? That stupid card won't save you from my monster! It's useless!"

Nazonei just ignored her opponent and continued with her turn. "Now I play Element Empowerment. This will give my Rasengan an added effect based on the element that my monster is" then the small ball grew in size and took the form of a giant swirling shuriken.

"Because my monster is a WIND type, it changes my monster's original Atk points to 3000 while he attacks, gives him the ability to attack all monsters on your field at the same time, and causes piercing damage" Cloud just stared doubtfully. Her monster was still too weak after all.

"Not done yet. I activate HurriKid's effect and remove a copy of him from my deck to increase his Atk points by 1000 for the remainder of the turn" and as the crowd watched with astounded faces, the hurricane kid charged at the dragon, his 4000 Atk points making him the strongest monster on the field.

Cloud just smirked as his monster launched another blast from its chest plate, completely incinerating the boy before he even had a change to hit the RasenShuriken.

"Sorry Uzumaki-san, but because I have all the Dragon Knights in my grave, my monster returns the battling monster's points to their original stats. Nazonei cringed as her life points dropped to a pitiful 300.

Nizone couldn't help but feel bad for his twin. He'd never seen her get so thoroughly dominated, and didn't like it at all_. 'Come on sissy, you've just gotta win. I'm not going to the Academy without you…'_

"I'll set a card and end with Swords of Revealing Light. Now you won't be able to attack for three turns".

Cloud laughed aloud as he drew his card. My monster is unaffected by such card effects, I already told you that!" then the large beast bounced from sword to sword, hell bent on taking out the female duelist. As he slashed at her, three familiar maidens stood between his sword and the young girl. Waboku was activated.

"Heh, your distraction was actually baited, and I fell for it. Again. Fine Uzumaki-san, but I promise your next turn will be your last".

Nazonei chuckled at Cloud's repeated mistake. Then she gathered up the energy to draw from her deck. "Pot of Greed allows me to draw twice" she pulled off the top two cards in her hand and formulated a strategy in her head.

"I'll cast the powers of Monster Reborn" she said with the familiar smile on her face as HurriKid reappeared on the field. Then she removed her final copy, causing her monster's Atk points to once again rise to 2600. Now I shall remove my RasenShuriken in the grave from play to return all the cards in your grave to your deck. Now you take 1000 points of damage"

Cloud was shocked as he instantly realized he no longer had the protection of his Dragon Knights on his DRAGO. (C: 3000)

"Now to end this… I equip HurriKid with Oodama Rasengan" then HurriKid held out his hand as a huge version of the original Rasengan appeared in it (Atk: 3600). "This will increase his Atk points by 1000. Not only that, but it also gives him the ability to deal you damage equal to the attack of every monster he destroys in battle. This is game over" was the last words off the duel.

Then HurriKid and DRAGO collided, destroying them both. But from the dust and debris flew the giant ball of swirling energy. It slammed dead into Cloud's chest, completely depleting his life points.

The crowd was in a complete uproar; they couldn't believe Cloud was defeated by an applicant.

"And Nazonei has won" Chancellor Yuki yelled loudly, increasing the already exploding excitement factor. Then he turned to the girl and congratulated her. "Welcome to Obelisk Blue young lady".

Nazonei smiled one last time as she fell over, exhausted from her duel. But before she hit the floor, Nizone caught her.

"Come on sis, let's go get you a seat."

* * *

**And that's the end of chapter 3! I thank Snibbity Dibbity for his Twilight Renewal and his Repayment of the Losses. Neither of those cards were of my own creation. Anyway, Nazonei has officially established herself as the number 1 rookie of the year. Next time, the gang arrives at the Academy and all get settled in to their respective dorms. Each of them go to classes, make new friends, and maybe even a few rivals. But who is this? A Slifer Red, what purpose could he have concerning the gang?**

**Next time on YuGiOh GX: Spirits UnBound, Chapter 4: Arrival to Duel Academy!**

**Nizone: Oh here we go. It's always something with you Nazonei, yeah!**

**Nazonei: I can't help. People just like me more ;-P**

**As always, please Read and Review. It will be greatly appreciated!**

**Update:**

******And there is the end to chapter 3. As always, feedback is greatly appreciated. I look forward to hearing what you have to say, and constructive criticism is always welcomed.**

**This is Rizengan01 signing out**


	4. Arrival to Duel Academy!

**As of August 2nd, 2012 this chapter has been edited. Hopefully it will be more enjoyable this way**

_**YuGiOh GX: Spirits UnBound!**_

_**Chapter 4: Arrival to Duel Academy!**_

* * *

After the duel exams were over, all the students were returned home. The passing applicants would be admitted in one week's time; Duel Academy simply needed the week to make room and get supplies for its new students.

That was a week ago.

Indeed, today happened to be the day all the passing applicants would arrive at the exemplary school. At the moment, they were on the cruise ship, about an hour away from its destination. Ryouu and the gang were standing on the edge of the ship, staring out at the beautiful ocean that was glimmering under the light of the full moon.

They'd been on the ship for several hours now and had done just about everything they could think of. They'd dueled each other several times, ate as much as their stomachs could hold, and even gotten to know some if the other passengers. There were a few people they had recognized; namely Hakoda and Keiko.

When they asked the girl how she made it into the Academy even after she failed, Keiko delivered a long-winded speech about the influential power of money. They didn't pay much attention to what else the ranting female had to say, but the one thing they did take from the _'conversation'_ was that she would be joining the Slifer Red dorms.

In the past, all girls were automatically admitted into the Blue dorms. But Chancellor Yuki changed all of that. In fact, he made many changes to the prestigious Academy.

His first act as chancellor was to improve the Slifer Red dorms. They were no longer the trashy rooms they had been in the past; now they were cleaner, had adequate food, were more spacious, and were generally much more modernized. They were also connected to the main building now. These improvements were great; though the dorms still paled in comparison to the Blue dorms.

After fixing up the dorms, he reexamined the rules for the female student population. They would now be on equal grounds as their male counterparts; that is, they would only be admitted by passing regulated exams, and would then be placed in the dorm that best suited their abilities.

Then there was his final and most dramatic change. Duel Academy had been transformed into a 4-year school as opposed to the previous 3. The reason behind this was simply. He wanted to give all of his students, particularly the Slifer Reds, an equal opportunity to become successful. This way, first year Slifers would be able to move up to Ra Yellow in their 2nd year, and finally into Obelisk Blue in their 3rd year. The 4th year would be devoted to becoming a recognized duelist so they could enter the Pro Leagues, if they so wished.

The Pro league was the main goal for most of the students anyway, so it only made sense to give them a chance to enter into it.

* * *

Nizone leaned against the railing, his arms crossed across his chest, his foot tapping against the floor as his bright cerulean eyes glared at the other residential passengers.

_'This is so boring'_ he thought to himself as a frown slowly spread across the lower half of his face. He then changed his glance to his companions, Ryouu and Misui.

Both of his friends held a peaceful look on their faces as they stared at the moonlit ocean. It may have been entertaining to them, but it was just too boring for Nizone's taste.

The boy ran a hand through his spiky brown hair before pushing himself off the railing. It was time for him to find something to do.

He ran off. All the while, his friends remained blissfully unaware.

* * *

_Meanwhile…_

Nazonei was in her room, propped up on her couch, wearing her favorite pair of over-sized pajamas and eating a bowl of cereal. Directly in front of her was a TV. She was watching re-runs of her favorite sitcom.

As she lifted the spoon to take a bite of her corn flakes, she heard a thud from right outside her door. Placed her bowl on top of her TV, she promptly went to check it out.

When she opened the door, she immediately saw the familiar form of her brother, who was lying on top of some other teenager. Apparently they ran into each other.

Nazonei didn't even bother to stifle her laugh and began to giggle. It was actually quite comical. She knew her brother wasn't exactly patient, so it was of no surprise that he'd ran into some unsuspecting passer-bier.

The pearl eyed girl leaned against her doorway, her arms crossed under her bosom as she watched the two boys untangle themselves and stand up from atop the floor.

Nizone was the first to get up. He promptly extended his arm so he could help the other boy up too.

The two now stood, albeit groggily, facing directly towards each other. The unfamiliar boy was the first to speak.

"Hey," the boy said generously as he held his arm out, a gesture. Nizone quickly shook the boy's hand, a familiar grin across his face.

"My name is Carson Senior" the boy introduced himself. Nizone took this opportunity to observe the boy. He was slightly shorter than Nizone, about 5'5, and also slightly younger. He also had slick brown hair and a goofy smile that Nizone himself was all too familiar with.

"Well hello Carson, my name is Nizone, and I'm gonna be the number one freshman for this year, yeah!"

Carson just chuckled and directed his attention to Nazonei. "But that means you'll have to do better than her. She's already in Obelisk Blue, and she scored the highest on the written exam, from what I hear." This statement made Nizone fume with anger.

Nazonei took this opportunity to introduce herself to Carson, who did the same in turn. But before Nizone could begin to rant, Carson told the twins that he needed to go back to his room and quickly departed.

The cerulean eyed boy just glared at his grinning sister for several seconds before he turned around and marched off.

* * *

_Later on..._

The ship had finally arrived at the shores of Duel Academy, the new students standing on the docks where they faced their new Chancellor, Jaden Yuki. It may have been unusual for the Chancellor to meet with the new students outside of the actual building, but Jaden had always been in touch with nature, so being in the wilderness only felt natural to him. He smiled as he had nostalgic memories about his own stay in Duel Academy and the many adventures he experienced.

But now was not the time for nostalgia, it was time for business.

The man stood there, dressed in his maroon jacket and staring at his new students expectantly. He could see the powerful auras emanating from many of the students. He felt a sense of pride swell up in his chest. "Hello my new students" Chancellor Yuki addressed as his demeanor changed to a much more serious one, instantly grabbing the students attention.

"Now as the new students of Duel Academy, I have high expectations for all of you" and as Jaden spoke, he walked from left to right, making eye contact with all of the students as he held his arms behind his back.

"During the exams, I had the pleasure of witnessing most of your duels, and examining your talents" and it was to this sentence that he and Nazonei shared a secret smile together.

"At any rate, your time here will be devoted to honing your skills and knowledge as a duelist, increasing your reputation, and making friends" many of the students were happy with the Chancellor's words. Not many school officials would encourage friendship and, well, anything that wasn't academically based.

* * *

Ryouu, Misui, and Nizone were all excited about this upcoming year.

Then Chancellor Yuki continued his speech. "Now I'm sure most of you already know the basics, but it's still my job to explain them. Basically, you all stay here for four years, the highest dorm you can achieve is Obelisk Blue; the lowest is Slifer Red. Every year we will hold ceremonial exams. These exams will challenge the individual, and if that person does well, then they will be placed in a higher dorm. The Slifers will move to Ra, and the Ras will move to Obelisk..."

Then a random hand flew up from within the waves of students that faced the Chancellor. The man grinned as he pointed at the risen hand, signaling that it was their turn to speak.

"Excuse me Chancellor, but what happens to the students in Obelisk Blue? If they cannot improve, then what can they do?"

"A good question. Even though the Obelisk Blues cannot be placed into a higher dorm, they can still increase their overall rank in the school... Not to mention it's a fun duel and a nice chance to show off your skills" Jaden added sheepishly as he rubbed the bridge of his nose with his index finger.

* * *

_Later On..._

The Chancellor continued his speech for several more minutes before he finally finished. The remainder of the speech consisted of the rules that applied to Duel Academy.

He told of how the students were to only stay on their own dorm grounds after 10:00, and that there was a 12:00 curfew on weekends that everyone was to abide by. Other rules included no off-campus dueling, no skipping class, no gambling, no dueling for cards, etc.

Chancellor Yuki also mentioned one interesting rule: all duels shall be automatically recorded by the students' issued duel disk, and the results of the duel shall be applied to the students' rank. This was enforced so that every student would try their best in every duel.

After he finished talking, Chancellor Yuki directed the students to follow him. He eventually led them into the auditorium they'd previously visited so they could find out what dorm they were placed in, what room they had, and what their class schedules were.

* * *

_At the Auditorium..._

As the mass group of students entered the auditorium, they were greeted by about ten of the school's staff members. Most of the adults were dressed in yellow blazers, but few also wore either red or blue. Each adult also held a clipboard.

Behind the faculty members were several drawers, presumably holding the blazers the new students would soon be dressed in.

The students were told to each line up single-filed, which they did. Because there were ten teachers and seventy new students, it was relatively easy for the students to figure that there should be seven students to each teacher. Ryouu, Misui, and Nizone all lined up together, seizing the opportunity to socialize.

After a few more minutes of generic assigning, all students were given their blazers and schedules.

Of all the new students, Nazonei was only one of the few to join the ranks of Obelisk Blue. She wore a tight blue blazer with white linings and a white mini-skirt with blue trims. She also wore dark blue boots and her familiar pink combat gloves. Her entire outfit showed off her great feminine physique. But it also served as a contrast to her long, sandy red hair.

Most students, including the gang, were dressed in yellow, signifying their rank as Ra Yellow. And finally, few, about 20, were wearing the Red blazer associated with Slifers. Of the 20 or so Slifers, Carson and Keiko were both noticeable.

Nizone wore a yellow blazer much the same way that Hassleberry had before him. His blazer was unzipped, revealing his light green undershirt. He also had the sleeves rolled up. His jeans were the same blue ones with the yellow ting, except now there was also the familiar yellow Helix stitched onto both back pockets. His outfit ended with the standard yellow shoes and gloves.

He grinned mischievously as he stared down at his own outfit. It was obvious he liked it.

Ryouu's attitude was much more reserved. He too wore his yellow blazer in an unzipped fashion, except his sleeves were worn longer, only slightly rolled up right below the wrists. He had a plain black undershirt and form-fitting silver pants. His shoes were the same yellow and black ones as Nizone, but his gloves were solid black. His violet eyes looked over himself a single time before turning his attention to his friends. He made a mental note to make a poncho out of his blazer as soon as he got to his new room.

Misui still wore her short white sleeveless shirt. But now her long baby blue armbands were replaced by a yellow material, which she possibly ripped from her blazer or skirt. She also wore the common yellow mini-skirt. But wrapped around her waist was Misui's blazer. She still wore the bandages around her legs that stretched from her ankles to her shin. And the final piece to Misui's outfit was her signature belt. The thick black belt was still worn in its slanted fashion, except now it was separating her blazer from her skirt.

"Nice outfit" Ryouu complimented. Misui stared back at him with an elfish grin on her face, one arm placed on her hip as the other one dangled limply by her side. But just as she opened her mouth to speak, Nizone's voice quickly interrupted her.

"So according to this paper" Nizone began as he read from the paper that the teacher had given him only moments earlier, "I'm in room 217."

The emerald eyed female decided to forfeit her opportunity to harass Ryouu to talk with Nizone. "Yeah" she began as she took out her own paper. "I've been placed in room 241."

Then Ryouu looked over his own paper. "They placed me in room 217..." the boy stated nonchalantly.

As the words left his mouth, Nizone began to radiate with excitement. "Haha, dude that makes us roommates, yeah!"

Hakoda stood at the edge of the auditorium as he watched our group with a dulled expression in his crystal black eyes. He too wore a yellow blazer; it matched impressively well with the rest of his militaristic outfit. He promptly crossed his arms before turning his attention to his new would-be roommates. _'Children... They don't appear to be anything impressive to me...'_

After their time in the auditorium, the gang headed back to Ryouu and Nizone's room to talk and relax. They were currently talking about their schedules for the upcoming year.

Ryouu read aloud from the same sheet of paper that told him of his assigned room. "I guess we have four classes each day. My first class is Dueling Basics. My second class is Duel Psychology. After that, I have Ancient History 101. And, my final class is..." Then the silverette stared at his paper n bewilderment. "My fourth period class is Academic Applications? What does that have to do with becoming a better duelist?"

Misui giggled for a moment before answering the boy's question. "Duel Academy may be focused on making its students better duelists, but they also wanted to make sure their students were generally educated. Honestly, at least I took the liberty to look at my schedule back in the auditorium. When I saw that class and realized I didn't understand it, I just asked the teacher to explain it to me."

Ryouu laughed sheepishly as he scratched the back of his head. "Ok then, what exactly do we do in that class anyway?"

Misui let another grin cross her face. "The same things you would do in a regular school: math, science, social studies, and language arts."

Nizone finally let the boredom overcome him. He began to read his own schedule aloud. "My first class is that one you guys were just talking about, yeah…that Academic Apps class. Anyway, my second class is Duel Psychology with you Ryouu. My third class is Dueling Basics, and my final class is Strategic Formations". As he finished reading, he looked at Misui expectantly.

The young girl took that as her cue and began reciting her schedule. "Well first off, I have Ancient History 101. Then I have Duel Psychology with both of you..." this news made both the boys grin with happiness. "My third period is Strategic Formation, and my last class of the day is Dueling Basics."

The group continued to talk for several more hours before Misui headed back to her room. Everyone decided to sleep early since class started tomorrow. The next day would officially be the first day of the rest of their lives.

* * *

**And that's the end of the chapter! No duel, surprising right? There will definitely be a duel next chapter though. I hope you enjoyed it. More stuff to come in**

**future episodes of Spirits UnBound!**

******And there is the end to chapter 4. As always, feedback is greatly appreciated. I look forward to hearing what you have to say, and constructive criticism is always welcomed.**

_**This is Rizengan01 signing out**_


	5. Top Bunked!

_**This is a new chapter I decided to squeeze in (August 2nd, 2012). Hopefully you will enjoy this just as much as the rest of the story**_

_**YuGiOh GX: Spirits UnBound!**_

_**Chapter 5: Top Bunked**_

* * *

Misui was casually walking down the hallway, enjoying the scenery that the Ra Yellow dorms had to offer.

She had spent the entire day with her friends Ryouu and Nizone, and it was now 7:30 in the afternoon. She had fun hanging out with her friends, but now she just wanted to get to her room and lay on her bed. The top bunk she had decided.

She chuckled as the memory washed over her…

* * *

_Earlier…_

_Ryouu and Nizone were staring bullets into each other. Imaginary sparks could be seen firing between the two boys eyes. Misui watched on with glee as the boys prepared for their bout. _

_Nizone was the first to make a move. He swiftly threw his hand behind his back. Ryouu quickly followed suit. Silence befell the entirety of the Ra Yellow dorms. It was as if everyone in the building was holding their breath, waiting for either boy to make a move._

_Then it happened._

"_Rock! Paper! Scissors! Shoot!"_

_Full force, both boys threw out their hands. Misui's eyes tightened as she witnessed the results. _

_Scissors. Both boys had thrown out scissors._

_Needless to say, this would never do. Nizone was the first to speak on the matter. "Let's go again, yeah!" Ryouu wordlessly nodded._

"_Rock! Paper! Scissors! Shoot!"_

_Once again, a tie resulted._

_Misui continued to stare at the two boys as they continued their showdown. They continued to showdown for seven more turns before finally reaching a victor._

"_Paper covers rock. That means I win!"_

"_No way! I meant to throw out scissors, but my fingers got stuck!"_

"_Uh huh. Then how were you able to throw out scissors last time?"_

"_Oh, I meant my hand caught a cramp! Yeah, that's it."_

"_No excuses Ryouu. I won, so I get the top bunk!"_

_Ryouu could only stand and pout as his roommate took to the top bunk._

_Misui could only laugh at the sight. "Haha. Cheer up Ryouu. Now you can get your butt kicked in some video games!"_

_With that, the gang spent the next half hour engaged in a thrilling session of the latest Mortal Kombat video game._

_But all was not well. At least, not for one of the members of the group._

"_Hey Ryouu, mind if I sit on your bed instead?"_

"_Huh? What's wrong with your bed?"_

"_Nothing! It's just that the A/C unit is blowing air directly up here, and it's really cold. And I think we're making too much noise because little flakes from the roof keep falling off and landing in my bed. Yeah…"_

_To this, Ryouu stood up and gave his roommate a conniving grin. "So you're telling me the top bunk isn't as good as you thought, huh?"_

"_Shut up! Can I sit on your bed or not?"_

* * *

_End flashback…_

That had convinced Misui that the bottom bunk was the better option. Not to mention it was simply easier to get onto the bottom bunk than to work to climb onto the top one. Yes, the bottom bunk was definitely the one for Misui.

"239… 240… 241… I guess this is it."

At last, Misui had reached her dorm room. But as she stood before, she felt a curious sensation wash over her body. Her heart beat slightly hastened, and her breathing became shallower.

It was very new to her. She couldn't tell if it was fear or excited. Maybe apprehension? No, she was too strong-willed for that. She was obviously just excited to be moving into her own dorm. Yes, that was definitely it.

Slowly, she slid her key into the door knob. _'Gotta be quiet'_ she thought to herself, _'don't want to disturb my roomie.'_

As she slid the door opened, she saw an image that mortified her.

Sitting on the bottom bunk was Misui's roommate. She was an average looking girl; long cerulean blue hair and glossy grey eyes, doing nothing but apparently reconstructing her deck.

"Umm… Excuse me, but I was hoping to have the bottom bunk."

The sudden voice startled the young girl. She jumped in surprise before turning to stare at Misui.

"Holy crap! You really scared me. Haha. So are you my roommate?"

Misui simply nodded in acknowledgement. "Yeah, I guess. But like I said, I was kind have hoping to have the bottom bunk."

"Oh… Well sorry to say, but first come, first served."

Misui's eye began to twitch at the statement. "That's not really fair. I got caught up in some business I had to handle earlier, so I wasn't able to get here on time."

"So you're saying I should give you the bed just because I got here on time? That hardly seems fair."

"No! I…" Misui was at a loss. Her roommate did have a point. But at the same time, she really wanted the top bunk.

It was than Misui noticed the cards strewn about the bed her roommate was sitting on.

A coy grin crossed her face. "How about we settle this is a friendly duel?"

The blue haired girl jumped in excitement. "I thought you'd never ask!"

The young girl's grey eyes gleamed with excitement. She promptly jumped up and simultaneously grabbed her deck and duel disk.

"A duel you say? Well that makes things much more interesting!"

Misui passed off a smirk as she activated her duel disk. "Oh. By the way, I'm Misui. What's your name?"

"It's Kairi!"

Misui simply nodded at her roommate.

"Duel!" (MLP: 4000/KLP: 4000).

Kairi took the initiative and drew her opening six cards. _'Perfect,'_ Misui thought to herself, _'this gives me a chance to analyze her play style.'_

Misui then drew her own five card hand. She didn't even bother looking at them. She put her sole focus on the person standing before her.

Kairi had already drawn her six cards, and was now leisurely organizing them. She wanted to make sure she completely registered ever card that was in her hand, every ability that could be accounted for, every combination that could be played.

As she got to the final card, her grey eyes sparked with light. She gave Misui a nod as she began her move. "I'll set one monster in defense mode. That'll be all for this turn!"

Misui wasted no time in ripping the top card off her deck. But again, she paid no attention to it.

'_Okay. Whatever that card is that she is holding on the far right must be very important to her, judging by her reaction. It's probably not a spell or a trap card since she didn't set it. That leads me to believe it's a monster…'_

Then her piercing emerald eyes changed focus to the face down monster on her opponent's field.

'_She quickly set that monster right after glancing at the first one. Odds are, she wants me to attack this monster. Then its effect will allow her to summon that other card. Well now that I know her plan, I can form an accurate counter!'_

It was at that moment that Misui finally cast a glance at the cards she was holding. Her eyes quickly gave them a once over. After noting them all, she quickly decided on a move.

"I'll start off with the ever-handy Painful Choice! This spell cards allows me to select 5 cards from my deck" And here she paused her speech to quickly locate the chosen cards. Then she held them out so that her opponent could see.

Kairi stared on in perplexity. She had never seen such cards before: two copies of a monster card know as Aqua Gauntlets (400/0), and three copies of a monster card know as Aqua Piston (1500/800).

"I have a feeling that it doesn't matter which one I pick…"

Misui only winked in reply.

"Fine, I'll choose one of the copies of Aqua Piston. Do your worst."

"I plan to!"

Without wasting any more words, Misui promptly dumped the other four cards in her graveyard. Then she slammed down another card onto her duel disk.

In a flash of light, the image of magnificent angel was enveloping the redhead. The gentle angle seemed to hand Misui a trio of duel monsters cards before fading away.

"The spell card Graceful Charity allows me to draw three cards from my deck. Then, I get to discard two of them."

As she placed two of the cards in her graveyard, Kairi could only focus on her words choice. 'Get to? Then she wanted to get rid of a couple cards. Probably that Aqua Piston she just got.'

"Looks like you catch on quick! I sent my final copy of Aqua Piston to the graveyard, along with my Penguin Soldier (750/500)."

"Yeah, I figured as much. So what's the point of it all?"

Misui's smirk widened. "The point is now I can activate the spell card Renewal of Triplets! As you probably know, this can only be activated if I have three copies of the same monster card in my graveyard. I can then summon the three of them to my field!"

Kairi could only watch in amazement as three new monsters appeared on Misui's field. They were all humanoid in shape, except they lacked legs. Their forearms were also far thicker and more extended than actual humans. Another noticeable trait was that they each had what appeared to be two large tentacles hanging from their head, giving it the appearance of two large locks of hair. The monsters were made of some gelatinous crystal blue, water-like material.

"Meet my Aqua Pistons (1500/800 - x3)!" Without warning, the three monsters' attacks shot up to a much more impressive 3500.

Kairi nearly yelped out in astonishment. "What in the world?!"

"That's the power of my combo. First off, my Aqua Pistons' effects states that they gain 400 attack points for ever WATER monster I have in the graveyard."

"But you only have three! They should've only received a 1200 point boost, but instead they received a 2000 point boost!"

"Yeah, awesome right? Remember that I have two copies of Aqua Gauntlets in my graveyard. As long as they are there, they each supply my monsters with an additional 400 attack points."

The blue haired girl finally understood. And she had to admit, it was an incredibly impressive move. In a single turn, Misui was able to summon out three monsters, all more powerful than the fabled Blue Eyes White Dragon. And not only that, but she was able to maintain a steady hand of five cards. Kairi had to admit, her new roommate was one hell of a duelist.

"So, any last words before I end this duel?" Misui asked cockily.

"Of course. In the words of the chancellor, _'a duel isn't over until the last card is played'_."

Misui couldn't help but smile at her opponent's enthusiasm. But she wasn't going to let it derail her focus. She had already analyzed Kairi's move, and was more than certain that an attack on the facedown monster would only end badly for her; especially since Kairi was confident enough to not even guard her monster with a set card.

'_She's still too confident in her monster. Looks like I'll have to resort to plan B after all…' _

Not wasting any more time, Misui quickly grabbed the next card from her hand and placed it on her duel disk. "I don't want to use overextend on my very first turn, so I'll just end it with this. The card is known as Aqua Lancing. It's a simply effect; by negating the attack of an Aqua Piston for this turn, I can target one card in your hand and send it to the bottom of your deck."

Kairi quirked an eyebrow. "So instead of going for the attack on my life points, you're making an attack on my hand…?"

"Yes!"

"Why?"

"Simply because attacking would only harm me."

For what seemed like the third time in minutes, Kairi once again quirked any eyebrow. "And how do you know that?"

"I was careful to watch your moves. Last turn you had a special reaction when you noticed one of the cards in your hand. The one on the far left. That's the one I'm targeting."

Keiko nodded in understanding as she slid the card into her deck slot. "That was a nice observation you made. It just so happened to be the monster I was planning to call out."

Misui's smirk widened. "I figured as much. With that card out the way, I'll have my two Aqua Pistons attack!"

Two of the three aquatic humanoids charged at Kairi full speed, one behind the other. The first Aqua Piston slammed its oversized fist into the opposing monster, causing it to flip face up.

Misui gasped in surprise at the horrid looking monster. It was like the physical embodiment of a poisonous cloud. Under the force of Aqua Piston's fist, the monster was quickly disposed of.

"That was my Toxi-Cloud (200/400), and when it's destroyed and sent to the graveyard, I must destroy every monster on my field. But in return, I get to draw one card for every monster destroyed."

Misui scratched her head and gave off a perplexed look. "Huh? What good would that do you?"

Kairi smiled in reply.

"Ordinarily, it wouldn't do much good at all. But the card you made me get rid of was Cryogenic Terror-Dactyl (2400/2700). It's a level 8 monster card than can immediately be summoned to the field after an effect that destroys my monsters is resolved. Once summoned, it would destroy an equal number of your monsters as the number of my monsters that was targeted…"

"And since your Toxi-Cloud targeted all of your monsters, that combo would've destroyed all of mine."

"Bingo!" the blue girl smiled at her opponent.

Misui nodded in response. "Nice strategy. Well, I'll just have my final Aqua Piston attack you directly."

The final aquatic warrior charged at Kairi at high speeds, and threw its fist forward. But before the enlarged fist could slam into the petite girl, a small brown furball intercepted the blow. It was promptly shattered.

"By discarding Kuriboh (300/200) I was able to negate the battle damage I was about to receive."

"Fair enough, I'll just end my turn."

Kairi excitedly ripped the top card off her deck before examining it. "I can't lie, you're offense is way stronger than I expected. I can't stop it right now. It's just too much. So I'll just summon my Sky-Boom Auxiliary Pilot (1500/950) in defense mode."

Appearing next on Kairi's field was an awkward looking monster. It was like a living conglomeration of a cartoon soldier and a cartoon plane.

"And to end my turn, I activate Swords of Revealing light. Now you have to wait three turns to attack. Go ahead."

Misui leisurely drew. Since she was restricted from attacking, there was little she could do. Kairi had effectively postponed her victory.

"Not much to do here. I'll just pass this turn."

Kairi hurriedly swiped the top card off her deck. Then she began to glow a faint red color as her life points dropped to 3600.

"During my standby phase, my Sky-Boom Auxiliary Pilot drains me of 400 life points. Now that we got that out the way, we can transition to the next part. I'll set this little monster in defense mode and call it quits."

Misui just stared on with calculating eyes. Though she had to admit, this girl was not easy to decipher.

'_Her style is so awkward. First she uses a monster that destroys all of hers, and now she summons a monster that drains her life points. If this is anything like her previous move, then I have no way of predicting the outcome. Most likely she'll be trying to after my monsters. Either that or she'll try to bypass my monsters and go straight for my life points. If she goes for my monsters, I can easily recover. So I'll just be sure to protect my life points instead.'_

Misui quickly drew the top card of her deck. But instead of looking at the card, she completely neglected it in favor of one of the cards she was already holding. "Since I can't attack, I'll just set one face down to end my turn."

"Good!" Kairi exclaimed as she swiftly drew her next card. Then, the red gleam once again appeared and dropped her life points to 3200, making it the single most damaging card in the duel thus far.

"I'll sacrifice my set monster in order to summon one of my favorite little creatures; meet my Magnum Catalyst (1000/1250)!"

Appearing next on the blunette's field was another awkward looking monster. This one was tiny, standing less than a foot tall. Being so short, it was hard to make out the monsters appearance. It was definitely humanoid, but also vastly different. The most noticeable feature from this new monster, besides the glowing orange skin, was that its entire torso was designed to look like an extraterrestrial fish.

Misui looked even more confused than previously. "A level 6 monster with only 1000 attack points? And you summoned it in attack mode?"

Kairi once again winked in reply. "Hehe, my deck has lots of surprises."

"Tch. I guess… it wouldn't be much fun if you told me your plan anyway."

"Exactly! Now that I got my two monsters out here, I'll be ending my turn with a face down. Have at it."

Misui wasted no time in drawing her card. But just like the previous turn, she didn't even bother looking at the card.

"This is the last turn that I am stricken by the effects of your swords. Make your turn count. It might be your last."

Kairi took that as a signal to start her turn. Her steely eyes hardened as she drew her next card. After glancing at her next card, a momentary smile graced her pale face. _'Awesome sauce! With this card, I can ensure the destruction of those pesky Aqua Pistons of hers.' _She was so excited that she barely even registered the red glow that drained her life points to a still formidable 2800.

"I'll set this card face down and end my turn. Do your worst."

"I plan to!" Misui challenged as she ripped the top card off her deck. She quickly eyed her opponent's face down.

'I bet that's a trap. Well, I guess I'll take the bait. I have enough in my hand to ensure my safety.'

"Aqua Piston number one, attack her Sky-Boom Auxiliary Pilot with Dynamic Fist!"

Kairi let out an audible gasp the hulking aqua soldier careened towards her tiny aerial monster. But her reflexes were quick, and she was able to activate her face down card in time.

Shift. A fairly common, yet versatile trap card. It changed the target of Aqua Piston's attack to Magnum Catalyst.

"I gotta say, I'm surprised. Most people would choose to attack my Magnum Catalyst so that my Pilot would continue to drain my life points. Why didn't you?"

Misui smirked in reply. "You used your Pilot's negative effect as a distraction. But I'm sure it also has a positive effect, something that has yet to be revealed. I figured I might as well take it out before it's too late. Besides, you obviously threw out Magnum Catalyst just to get me to attack it. That's what you wanted, right?"

Kairi was staring on with a look of bewilderment. "How did you see through my set up like that?"

The scarlet haired female could only chuckle in response. "Years of practice."

"Well it's obviously paid off. But it wasn't good enough. I also activate Nutrient Z! When I'm about to take more than 2000 points of damage, this gives me a 4000 point boost."

True to her words, Kairi's life points shot up to a staggering 6800. But as soon as she finished her statement, her Magnum Catalyst was shattered under the force of Aqua Piston's humongous fist.

The girl's life points promptly dropped (KLP: 4550).

"Wait, Magnum Catalyst only had 1000 attack points. You should have 4300, not 4550."

"Wrong! My monster's attack and defense points are switched. But that's not the important part. Since you destroyed my monster while in attack mode, it goes to your graveyard. And as long as it's there, you can't utilize effects that have anything to do with any other card in your graveyard."

Misui looked confused. 'What exactly was the point of all that?'

Then it hit her. Like a train at full speed, realization dawned her.

"That means my Aqua Pistons won't get the attack boost…"

And just like that, the Aqua Pistons were reduced to a measly 1500, the same as Kairi's Sky-Boom Auxiliary Pilot.

One again, Kairi winked at Misui. "Looks like I was able to stop your onslaught after all."

"Not quite! Aqua Piston number two, attack that Pilot with Dynamic Fist!"

Kairi could only stare in shock as the two monsters destroyed each other.

"Didn't see that coming, did you?"

"No way. I wasn't expecting a suicide attack. But now you've activated my Pilot's effect. Upon destruction, he takes all the damage he caused me, doubles it, and inflicts it upon you."

Misui simply shrugged off the red glow that was consuming her. "I'll activate my face down Barrel Behind the Door. This will take all the damage you were about to hit me with and turn it back to you instead."

Kairi barely had time to cross her arms before the blast was unleashed upon her. As her life points dropped by a large 2400, she absent-mindedly thought about how the room wasn't large enough to contain a duel of this magnitude (KLP: 2150).

"But I'm not done yet. Aqua Piston number three, attack Kairi directly with Dynamic Fist!"

For what seemed like the tenth time this duel, the blunette fell victim to the power of Aqua Piston's fist (KLP: 650).

Kairi was huffing with exhaustion, even as she drew her next card. "Man, you're much stronger than I gave you credit for. But this duel isn't over yet! I activate the spell card Pool of Oddities."

As Kairi slammed the card on her duel disk, a pool of green slime appeared before her. From out of the pool climbed a new monster. This monster was simply massive compared to the other monsters Kairi had called upon. This new monster had the top half of a Bull, but with the base of a fish… or rather a mermaid… with two fins.

"Pool of Oddities allows me to summon a DARK attribute Fish monster from my hand. The monster I summoned is my Vizer Steed (2800/1700)!"

Misui whistled at the new monster. "Finally a heavy hitter!"

"That's right, and you're about to feel his full force! When my Steed destroys a monster in battle, it allows me to place a Lightning Counter on one other monster on my field. Now I'll have him attack one of those troublesome water monsters!"

In an unexpected move, the Vizer flung a bolt of lightning at the defenseless Aqua Piston. It groaned in pain as the lightning coursed through its body before exploding in a shower of pixels.

For the first time this duel, Misui's life points took a dip (MLP: 2700).

Then after the attack was over, an orb of lightning began to hover over the half-fish steed.

"Since he was the only monster on my field, I gave him the Lightning Counter. It'll protect him from destruction outside of battle. That'll end my turn."

Once more, Misui ripped the top card off her deck.

"First off, I'll activate Different Dimension Capsule. This will allow me to select one card from my deck and remove it from play for the next two turns. Then I get to add it to my hand."

True to the girl's words, one of the cards in her deck ejected from her duel disk. She promptly grabbed it and placed it in her back pocket.

Kairi's silver eye's glinted with focus. _'That card could be just about anything. I gotta try to wrap this up quickly.'_

"Now I will switch my Aqua Piston to defense and set a monster face down. That's it for this turn."

Kairi smirked as she drew her next card. "Nice to see I finally have you on the defensive! Lucky for you, I don't have a monster in my hand that I can summon, so my Vizer will just have to do. Attack that final Aqua Piston!"

Once more, the powerful lightning strike made quick work of the aqua-based warrior. Since it was in defensive position, Misui suffered no loss. But the Vizer Steed gained another lightning counter.

"That'll end my turn."

Misui quickly drew, but once again completely neglected the card. "I'll set one card face down and end my turn."

Even as she drew, Kairi could only smirk at the change of fortune. "Well, time to do damage. I'll have Vizer attack that face down monster"

Once more, the dual-beat unleashed a powerful reign of lightning upon the face down monster. It revealed to be nothing more than a tiny gelatinous fish that bared a striking resemblance to Aqua Piston.

"You just destroyed my final copy of Aqua Gauntlet."

"Fair enough… But now my Vizer gets his third and final Lightning Counter!" And true to her words, one last ball of lightning appeared and surrounded the dual-beast.

Then something amazing happened. The three balls of light all fused together and caused a bright explosion. Misui was forced to shield her eyes from the sight.

Once the light died down, a new monster stood on the field. It was roughly the same size as the Vizer Steed, but was more of a complete inverse. The top half of the creature was reminiscent of a humanoid sea-creature, while the bottom half resembled that of genetically modified fighting bull.

"By sacrificing my three Lightning Counters, I can summon my Tragle Fish (1700/2800)!"

Misui slightly cringed at the sight of the new monster. It was summoned during the current battlefield, so that meant…

"Attack her directly!"

Similar to its counterpart, Tragle unleashed a powerful lightning strike upon Misui.

But just before the attack connected, Misui flung what seemed to be half her deck in front of her.

"The trap card Power Wall lets me discard cards from my graveyard to decrease the amount of damage I take x100. I'll discard 17 cards in order to completely negate the attack."

Kairi looked on with mild interest. "Good thing I have my Magnum Catalyst in your graveyard. Now you can't utilize any of the cards you just sent to the graveyard. You can take your turn now. But be warned, on my next turn, the combined effect of my two monsters will activate. Until then, I'll just protect myself with a single set card."

Misui took the initiative and drew to start her turn.

"I think there was one thing you forgot."

Kairi looked perplexed. "What was it?"

Just then, a large coffin rose from the ground. Once it opened up, it released a single card, which Misui quickly grabbed.

Kairi's eyes began to bulge.

"My Different Dimension Capsule. And the card that was sealed away was Soul Release. With Soul Release, I can target up 5 cards in either of our graveyard piles and remove them from play."

Kairi could only gulp in response. That meant Misui could remove Magnum Catalyst and once again access her graveyard. And with 17 new cards in there…

"I think it's obvious that I'll be getting rid of Magnum Catalyst from my graveyard. I guess I'll also get rid of your Sky-Boom Auxiliary Pilot and your Toxi-Cloud."

Then Misui held up one last card from her hand. Kairi could barely make it out, but it looked like a spell card. The picture seemed to depict a rather majestic cross.

"Monster Reborn allows me to once again call upon my Aqua Piston!"

In a shower of pixels, the gelatinous blue warrior appeared on the field. But this time, it was more than twice as large as before. In fact, it had to completely kneel just to fit inside the room.

"Now let's do a head count. In my graveyard, I have two copies of Aqua Piston. That adds 800 points to my monster. Next up is the Penguin Soldier, which adds another 400 points. Then there are the three copies of Aqua Gauntlets, which add an incredible 2400 points. And finally, there's the three monsters I discarded by the effect of Power Wall, adding an additional 1200. That gives my monster a total of 6300 attack points!"

Kairi staggered backwards at the sight of the powerful monster. With only 650 life points left, there was no way Kairi could survive an attack from the terrifying monster. But there was still something wrong. Even as she prepared for the impending attack, she absentmindedly wondered why only 3 of the 17 discarded cards were monsters.

"It's high time to end this duel. I'll use Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy your set card and ensure that my attack sticks."

Just as she said, a swift wind came through the room and blew away Kairi's facedown. It was quickly revealed to be Mirror Force before it shattered by the force of the winds.

"Now Aqua Piston, destroy that Vizer Steed with Dynamic Punch!"

Once more the aquatic warrior slammed its giant fist into the opposing monster. Kairi could barely stand her ground, even as the force of the attack completely wiped out the remainder of her life points.

"I'm not done yet! Remember the monster I sacrificed to summon Magnum Catalyst? That was my Heretic Guardna (0/1000) and by removing it from play, I can double the amount of damage I take, to inflict the original amount to you!"

Misui could only stare blankly as the phantom image of what appeared to be an organic shield sent shockwave that reduced her life points to nothing (NLP: 0/KLP: 0).

A tie…

"That was one hell of a duel! You're by far the most impressive duelist I have ever faced."

Misui smiled in appreciation as she deactivated her duel disk. Then she wiped a rogue strand of her scarlet hair from her face.

"Hehe, thanks. You're not bad yourself."

"I mean it" Kairi continued. "Your dueling style is probably the single most powerful one I have ever witnessed. But that's not all, you were also really good at reading my moves."

"Not true. Your style is one of the weirdest ones I've ever had the pleasure of facing off against. It was almost impossible to read your next move."

Kairi could only smile in reply. "Haha yeah, my deck is a real oddball. But then, that's what makes it fun!"

Misui smirked at her roommate's good nature. But then her expression became much more serious.

"Well, it was a tie, so we still have the bed issue to resolve."

The blue haired girl scratched her head in contemplation. "Well, we could always just take the top bunk off the bottom and have them be separate beds."

Misui liked the sound of that. It was such a simple yet effective solution.

As the two girls brought the top bunk down to the floor, Misui could only think about how simple their solution was, and how her best friends couldn't even think of such thing. She giggled once more. Guys could be such idiots at times.

* * *

_Moments Earlier…_

"And Masuchi wins another duel in excellent fashion!"

Nizone was jumping with joy at the spectacular outcome from the televised duel. His favorite Pro League sensation managed to once again defend his title as champ.

Ryouu was also smiling with joy, though not nearly as enthusiastically as his roommate. Besides, he had much more pressing matters to attend to. Before him lied his Ra Yellow blazer or at least what was left of it. True to the boy's words, he was cutting his blazer to model it into a, rather small, poncho.

"Achoo!"

At that particular moment, both boys released a rather loud sneeze.

Nizone and Ryouu stared at each other for a moment. "Did we both sneeze at the same time?"

"I thinks dude, yeah."

"That's weird," Ryouu scratched the back of his hair. "Maybe someone's talking about us."

A smug grin spread across the brunette's visage. "It was probably that Keiko chick. I knew she was totally into us, yeah!"

"Haha, shut up dude. You know she isn't even thinking of us."

Nizone's grin did not falter. "Probably not. But she was definitely a cutey, yeah."

The silverette nodded in agreement. "She is. But at the same time, her attitude is one of the worst I've ever seen. I wouldn't bother worrying about her."

Nizone simply turned his attention back to the television. "Maybe you're right bro… Maybe…"

* * *

**Misui is finally introduced to her roommate for the next year of her life.**

******And there is the end to chapter 5. As always, feedback is greatly appreciated. I look forward to hearing what you have to say, and constructive criticism is always welcomed.**

******This is Rizengan01, signing out**


	6. Test Your Psyche!

**Author's note: hah, I update much faster this time. It was a lot easier because this chapter had a duel, but also because I actually had a chance to sit down and work on it! xD**

**Update:**

**As of August 2nd, 2012, this chapter has been updated. Hopefully it'll be more enjoyable this way**

_**YuGiOh GX: Spirits UnBound!**_

_**Chapter 5: Test Your Psyche, a Powerful Opponent Awaits!**_

* * *

"Hello class" the tall man started as he stared at the students in his classroom.

The man was very tall, about 6'4, but he was also a man of age. He was 48, but very healthy. His hair was balding at the front, but very long and full from behind. He was also suiting a white beard and mustache that hung down to his neck. His outfit was a simple Red Blazer accompanied with black slacks.

The man was in the middle of teaching a class, Duel Psychology. This man was the infamous Professor Kyoto. As his bolded black eyes surveyed his class, the reason for his infamy became clear: he was a strict teacher that never let his students get away with anything.

This was a lesson that a certain 'silverette' was about to learn the hard way.

"Because the new school year only started one week ago, I spent the entirety of last week preparing all of you new students for the changes that come with Duel Academy. But now you all have had a week to get accompanied with the rules and regulations, so today I shall begin our lesson" then the man turned his back to his students and instead faced the chalk board where he began to write something.

And it was true. The new students had arrived eight days ago and had spent the last week going to class, hanging out, and doing anything else you might expect kids to do in their free time.

Misui and the group all became familiarized with their respective schedules. All three of them were sitting inside this classroom, watching what their teacher was writing on the board.

Over the past week, Misui met up and befriended her roommate, a fun-loving girl named Kairi. Kairi had powerful grey eyes and long blue hair. She was quickly accepted into the group as its newest member. Misui seemed to be having a great time with her.

But Ryouu was not so lucky. The first few days with Nizone were fun, but they were beginning to take their toll on him. Constant late-nighters with little sleep made the boy feel sluggish during the day.

He stared at Nizone with glum eyes, watching his friend's vibrant behavior. _'Honestly Nizone, I don't know how you do it...'_

Professor Kyoto finished writing on the board _'the Psychology of the Duelist'_ before turning back to face his students.

"Many of you may have already figured, but this class shall mainly be revolving around the psychology of the duelist; of the individual. Our goal is to try and understand the reason behind every great duelists' moves; why did they do this instead of doing that? Why did he summon that when this is more powerful? Why is this card in this person's deck? It is these types of question that we will..."

But the man was interrupted by the sound of a loud thud. His eyes quickly shot up, instantly spotting the creator of the noise. Disappointment spread across the elder man's face as he saw Ryouu, lying face down, fast asleep.

Misui face palmed. _'Oye, Ryouu'_

Kyoto slowly walked over to the sleeping boy and gently nudged him on his shoulder, using just enough force to wake the boy. As Ryouu stared at the professor groggily, Kyoto smiling an awkward smile, making the boy more nervous than he already was.

"Well Mr. Tetsu, it would appear as though my class is too boring for your liking." The accusation made the boy shake his head fervently. "No sir! I'm sorry, I just didn't get much sleep last night" the boy pleaded honestly.

Nizone almost felt guilty for keeping his friend up so late, but decided to enjoy the show instead. He reclined in his seat and let a large grin overtake his visage. It was such a rare treat to see Ryouu in trouble, especially so early on in the school year!

"Well Mr. Tetsu, if staying awake is so troublesome for you, then I suppose we should engage in a more _stimulating _activity" then the Professor began eyeing the rest of the class, much to Ryouu's chagrin.

"Well class, who else would like to be a part of today's dueling demonstration?"

At the sound of this, many of the students were overtaken with bewilderment, including Misui. Nizone just leaned even farther back in his seat, his grin doubling in size.

One of the hands in the classroom went up. It belonged to a first year Obelisk Blue, his short wavy blue hair and icy black eyes giving him a fearsome appearance.

Professor Kyoto smiled and called the two boys down to the center of the floor. "Well class, today we shall get an up close look at a duelist's mindset. I want all of you to pay attention to the way these two play their cards" and with that, the professor went and sat at his desk, giving the two boys the space they needed to duel!

Ryouu was dressed much the same as when he first showed up. The only difference was that he turned his Ra Yellow blazer into a poncho, true to his words. It was actually a pretty stylish look for the young boy.

He eyed his opponent warily for a moment before relaxing his muscles. _'I don't see anything special in this guy. Doubt I have anything to worry about...'_

"My name is Ryouu Tetsu" the silverette called out to his opponent. The Obelisk Blue nodded in affirmation. "And I am Lee. Lee Falcon" the boy stated as he and his opponent both drew their opening five cards.

**(R: 4000) "DUEL!" (L: 4000)**

Then Ryouu drew his sixth card, signifying that he would make the opening move of the duel. "Before I start off, why did you want to duel me in the first place?" Lee just looked on with a smirk.

"Simple. I just wanted to know how well you Ras hold up to us Obelisks."

Ryouu didn't need to hear anymore, he'd heard enough. He wasn't exactly offended by the boys answer, but it still left a sour taste in his mouth. The only reason that he wasn't in Obelisk Blue was because he hadn't gone to a duel prep school beforehand. That was the case with most Ras. Other than that, they weren't necessarily any weaker than the Obelisks of the same year.

He decided to shake it off and just finish the duel already. He also wanted to make his dorm look good.

"I'll set a monster in defense mode and end my turn" the boy declared. Then a large brown rectangle materialized in front of him.

Lee drew from his own deck to start his turn. But without laying down any cards in his hand, a monster card appeared on his side of the field. The on-looking classmates stared with mild surprise at the sudden appearance of the monster.

It was a tall man with curly blond hair wearing a navy blue militaristic uniform (1500/1250).

"This monster is known as Special Agent: Jonathan Dark, and he has the unique ability of special summoning himself from my deck if I have no monsters on my field or in my hand" the 'blunette' stated in a very monotone fashion. His voice was so lacking of emotion, that it was almost robotic.

Ryouu looked on with an impressed cat-like smirk on his face. His opponent's deck then was obviously less common than most others. _'This should be fun' _he thought to himself.

"My cards are based on a fictional government organization known as the Carrington Institute, and my monster is their primary intelligence gathering agent. So it is only natural for him to be the first monster on my field."

Then Lee slid one more card out of his deck and placed it under his lone monster. With that, Jonathan whipped his hands out, and in a matter of moments, two silver magnums appeared in them, raising his attack power to an impressive 2300!

"My monster has more than one effect. When he is summoned to the field in any way, I can take my DY357 Magnum equip spell card and instantly equip it to him."

Then Jonathan spun the magnums in his hand for a moment before taking aim at Ryouu, a smirk on the hologram's face.

"This card increases his attack points by 800 and gives him the ability to attack twice!" And without another word, the agent fired a powerful shot at Ryouu's set monster. But as soon as the bullet pierced the brown card, it flipped face-up, revealing a small blue-gray wolf with a long, forked tail that was easily twice as long as its own body was.

The wolf monster created a vortex between his forked tail and dove into it, disappearing from the field completely.

"Shocked?" Ryouu questioned tauntingly. "That was my Portal Runner Wolf (400/700). His special ability activates when you declare an attack. I can then remove him from play to negate your attack." Lee looked on with a hardened visage as Ryouu took the card off his duel disk and held it in his right hand. "Since my first attack was unsuccessful, then that means I won't be able to use Jonathan's second attack" Ryouu nodded in understanding.

"That's what I was hoping" he stated watched his opponent place a face down spell or trap card. The Ryouu drew from his deck to star his turn. The small blue wolf returned to the field, leaping from another portal it created. The monster gracefully landed in front of Ryouu in the same spot it previous inhabited. "And before you ask, my monster returns to my field during the standby phase after it is removed from play!" Then he took the card and placed by on his duel disk.

Then Ryouu turned the attention of his violet eyes on to the remaining cards in his hand. The boy just shrugged as he placed one spell or trap card face down on his field. "Not really much else I can do. Your move."

Lee wasted no time in ripping the top card off his deck, giving him six cards in his hand to work with. "Because I have Jonathan Dark on my field, I can activate my Reconnaissance Mission spell card! Now I can take a peek at your face down card, and if I don't like it, I can sacrifice my attack to destroy it" Ryouu's face twisted into a disapproving manner as he heard the card's effect.

Then his trap card flipped face up, revealing the image of a large wolf jumping out from a nearby bush to protect a smaller wolf from an attacking Vorce Raider. "Feral Ambush, huh? That card would allow to negate my attack and give you the opportunity to summon another monster. Not much of a choice huh?"

Then Jonathan fired a shot from one of his twin magnums. the shot easily ripped through Ryouu's trap card. Lee stared on with joy at his successful move.

"Now I will summon one more monster to my field" when Lee finished his sentence, a new, female monster appeared in the field. She had short brown hair and form-fitting clothes that loosely resembled the ones Jonathan Dark wore (1800/1400).

then Lee slid the card out of his deck compartment and placed it on his monster zone. "This is my signature monster. Her name is Perfect Agent: Joanna Dark. I can only summon her from my deck if Jonathan is on my field or in my graveyard. Her summon condition is then treated as a normal summon" Ryouu watched the new monster.

It seemed obvious that Lee was planning to rid the field of his wolf monster.

"Now when Joanna is summoned, I can take a Falcon 2 equip spell from my deck or graveyard and equip it to her. The card I choose is Falcon 2 Silencer!" Then Joanna held out her hand as a small silver pistol appeared in it, a modified silencer placed at the end of the barrel. Joanna crouched into a kneeling position as she took aim at Ryouu's field, her attack points jumping to 2000!

"This card gives her 200 additional attack points, and then makes her attack unchainable" when Ryouu heard this, he slightly recoiled. Lee smirked at the sight.

Then Joanna fired several shots at the small blue wolf, destroying it before it could create a vortex to hide in (R: 2600). As the small wolf exploded in a shower of pixels, Joanna reloaded her weapon before facing Jonathan, the two monsters silently greeting each other.

A slight grin was seen on Ryouu's face. "Nice move Lee; let's see if I can do one better!" Then the boy ripped the top card off the duel disk that was placed on the boy's right arm. He stared at his hand for a few seconds, waiting for the move to come to him.

"Ok, I've got it. I'll summon my Shadow: Wolf of Darkness!" A mighty black wolf appeared on Ryouu's field, its black fur giving it the slight appearance that it was a shadow (700/500).

Lee looked on with an unimpressed look. "That is nowhere near powerful to be considered a threat to me. What else are you planning?"

"Glad you asked!" Ryouu roared excitedly as he clasped two of the remaining cards in his hand and placed them on the field.

"Heh, my opponent surrendered before I could use this in my last duel. That means you're the first person to see it since my arrival. I play my field spell, The Ancient Lands!"

Suddenly, the classroom turned into a magnificent forest. Shadows were spread everywhere as the beautiful full moon floated directly overhead. It was far larger than the average moon; so large in fact that it almost filled the sky. There was also a powerful fog that covered the surrounding area; reflective eyes of unknown predators could be seen peering through the fog. Above the fog, faint figures could be seen flying about. The entire field spell gave off a wondrous feeling. It was an unexplainable combination of spiritual bliss and pure primal instinct.

Misui watched on with glee. She knew that the field spell was one of the key corner stones of his deck, so she was pretty sure that Ryouu had a nice plan coming.

"How does this card work exactly?" Lee questioned. He was obviously a cautious duelist. Ryouu appreciated that in his opponent.

He grinned as he explained his card effect. "This card increases the attack points of my Beast monsters by 300, and the attack points of all my Raiku monsters by 500. It also unlocks the hidden abilities of some of the other cards in my deck..."

"Like that other card in your hand" Lee questioned knowingly. He was beginning to catch onto Ryouu's move.

"Yep. The card in my hand is called Tag-Out. It would normally allow me to return a wolf on my field to my deck to special one of equal or lower level from my hand. But because I have my field spell in play, I can summon the monster from my hand without sending Shadow to the graveyard. Now arise, Arks Wolf!"

Then a new white wolf appeared on the field. It was average sized, but had golden armor plates spread sparsely around its body. Its attack points rose from 1200 to 1500 thanks to the field spell. Then Shadow was also empowered, his attack points increasing to 1000.

"Now what was the point of all this?"

"Simple. When Arks Wolf is special summoned, I can change the position of one monster on the field" Lee and his masculine monster was caught off guard at the appearance of the new monster. The new wolf released a bolt of energy a bolt of energy from a blue crystal embedded in its golden visor. The bolt struck Jonathan hard in the chest, knocking him to his knees (Def: 1250).

"Now I'll activate Fissure to destroy your weakest monster!" Lee could do nothing but watch on as the ground opened up and swallowed his monster.

"Now that I have him out of the way, I only need to worry about Joanna. But before I do that, I will use Shadow's special ability to attack you directly."

As Ryouu made the command, Lee was once again caught off guard. The phantom wolf flew out of Lee's shadow and clawed the boy in his back. He yelped in pain as his life points dropped down to 3000.

"I'll set one card and end my turn."

Lee drew from the top of his deck, but promptly disregarded the card as he went straight to his battle phase. "Joanna, avenge your brother and destroy that Shadow wolf" Joanna once again took aim at her target. After a moment of preparation, she fired her shot. The powerful bullet came spiraling at the black wolf.

"Not so fast, I activate my Pack Hunting trap card. This handy Trap card can only be activated because you declared an attack on my wolf monster. I can now add my Arks Wolf into the battle!"

Then the armored white wolf pushed the black wolf out of harm's way. Both wolves charged at the woman, completely prepared to destroy her. Their attack points combined to make an impressive 2500.

Lee watched with a grin on his face. "Sorry Ryouu, but I knew your facedown was a trap, so I was prepared" as Lee spoke, his face down card lifted face up, revealing a trap card depicting a futuristic greenish brown Hover Bike. "I can only activate this card if I have a face-up Agent on my field" and to this, Joanna did a vertical backflip, landing atop the large green machine.

Her attack points also shot up to 2500. "When a monster is equipped with this card, that monster gains a 500 attack point boost and can sacrifice the ride to escape destruction."

Ryouu looked on in amazement as his two wolves collided with the incoming female warrior. As the smoke cleared only Joanna was still standing, her Falcon 2 Silencer still in hand (atk: 2000).

Now Ryouu's side was completely bare, with the exception of his field spell. Lee smiled as he made one more surprising move. "I play Re-Invoke. This spell card allows me to remove an equip spell that corresponds to a monster in order to summon that monster" Ryouu looked slightly confused by this definition.

Lee chuckled. "Allow me to demonstrate" then he slid the DY357 Magnum card from his grave and placed it in his back pocket. Then Jonathan reappeared on the field, no longer wielding his familiar weapon of choice (1500/1500).

"The monster that is summoned by this card effect cannot attack in that turn, so I chose to summon Jonathan back to the field after you activated your face down just too keep him out of harm's way"

Ryouu took that final definition as his hint to take his turn. He drew from his duel disk before looking at the card. After a moment, he finally played it, summoning a new wolf monster to the field. This new wolf was a shiny white female. Her fur was much longer than any wolf before, making her look almost like a wet polar bear. Her vibrant blue-green eyes stared directly at Lee (1100/2300).

"I summon my Mother Wolf in attack mode! And now for one more card; I play my MoonLight Prowl continuous spell card" then the mist grew even stronger. The only thing that could be seen was the vague silhouette of the opposing duelists.

"As long as my field spell is in play, the only monsters that can attack are Beast types. And they can only be selected as a target for card effects or attacks if they're in attack mode!"

Lee looked on with a semi-impressed gleam in his eyes. "That may be a decent stall tactic, but it won't serve you very well if you want to win this duel."

This in turn caused Ryouu to grin with knowledge. "It might seem that way, but there is more to my strategy than just blocking you attack. You see, once per turn, my Mother Wolf can special summon a Wolf from my graveyard that was destroyed by battle the previous turn."

Lee let this sentence sink in before he finally reacted. "That means you can bring back your Shadow and direct attack me for the remainder of the duel..."

"That may be true" Ryouu said with little emotion as he took one of his few remaining cards and placed it on his inverted duel disk. "The spell card Fury Swipes lets me draw two cards from my deck" then he snatched the top two cards from his deck and added them to his hand.

"Now I will use Mother Wolf to revive Shadow, and have him attack you directly" then the female wolf howled to the moon. A shadow soon appeared behind Lee, clawing him once more and dropping his life points to exactly half of their initial value (L: 2000).

Lee did not even wait for Ryouu before his started his turn. Then he discarded one card from his hand and placed another under his Special Agent.

"By discarding one card from my hand, I can equip my Rocket Launcher to Joanna Dark!"

Then the female agent placed the Falcon 2 in her holster and pulled out a huge rocket launcher (2000/1400)!

"Now you are in real trouble" the blunette stated confidently, his arms crossed under his chest in a superior manner.

"Now this card gains three counters, and each turn I can remove one counter to destroy a monster on your side of the field. Your little cheap shots won't work on me anymore. The monster that is destroyed by this card is removed from play, and you take 500 points of damage!"

Ryouu looked on in bewilderment. With a single equip card, Lee had found a way around his defense, got rid of his only offense, and found a way to deal damage to his life points. His pupils cut into slits. Lee was proving to be a much more powerful opponent than he initially thought.

"Now my Perfect Agent, give up your attack so that you can demolish that dark wolf" Joanna fired a huge, speeding rocket at the small animal, instantly destroying it on impact.

Ryouu shielded himself from the smoky uproar, even as his life points dropped to 2100.

But even at this disadvantage, Ryouu began to grin in a wolf-like manner. "Because you removed my monster from play while Portal Runner is in the grave, I can draw a card from my deck" then he took the monster off of his duel disk and placed it in his back pocket.

Lee smiled at his opponent as he ended his turn. Then Ryouu drew twice for his turn, and his monster's effect. Now he had five cards to work with.

"Well Ryouu, you are very good at making a rebound, but I'm not very impressed with your actual skill. The only dangerous monster you have used so far was a direct attacker." Ryouu merely shrugged off his opponent's words as he began his turn.

"Well no offense Lee, but don't think that's the best I've got. I was only giving you as much as I thought you could handle. I guess you could say that I was gathering info on you" Ryouu snickered.

Lee stared at the boy for a moment before replying. "Oh, and what have you found?"

Then Ryouu was overtaken by a much more serious demeanor. "I'm pretty sure now that those two are probably the only monster's in your deck. The rest of your cards revolve around protecting them, summoning them, and powering them up. Am I right?"

By the look of the blunette's face, it was safe to say that Lee was at least a little impressed. But the boy also had a deduction of his own. "And your deck seems to be littered with weaker monster that use powerful effects to whittle your opponent down."

Ryouu just grinned at his opponent. "Pretty much. Except, there is also a focal monster in my deck, much like your Perfect Agent." Then the silverette stopped speaking and played a card in his hand. The familiar spell card of Graceful Charity was revealed. "As I'm sure you know, I can discard two cards to draw three more!"

The boy did exactly as he said, but also drew a forth card. One of the Cards he discarded was Repayment of the Losses. Now working with 6 cards in his hand, Ryouu once more began to speak.

"If it's power you want to see, then I will show you power!" And as Ryouu finished his declaration, a new monster rose to his side of the field. But it did not appear in a shower of pixels, as per usual. Instead, one of the reflexive eyes that were watching over the duel hopped out of the bush it had been hiding in and landed directly in front of the Ra yellow duelist. This new monster was the biggest wolf yet. It was large, silver, and battle-scared. One of its eyes had a deep gash through it, blinding the eye. Its other stone black eye showed a fighting spirit. As it took place on the field, it gained the strength boost that accompanied the field spell (2300/1500).

"I should probably explain the appearance of my new monster" the violet eyed duelist lamented. "My Mother Wolf is an Apperition, which means that she can only activate her effect if she has support of another Apperition" Lee stared with a slight dumbfounded expression.

"Then how could you use her effect if she was the only Apperition on your field?"

"If she is the only Apperition I have on the field, then I can send one from my deck to the grave to utilize her effect..." Then Ryouu pointed at the new monster that was on his side of the field. "This is the monster I sent to the graveyard. Leader of the Pack."

"But if he was placed in your graveyard, then why is he on your field?"

"Another simple answer. The other card I discarded to activate my Graceful Charity was my Revival Essence spell card. And if it's sent to the grave due to card effect, then I can special summon an Apperition from my graveyard in face up attack position."

"So that explains why you have that monster on your field. Now my next question is what will you do with him?"

This question caused Ryouu to grin again. He felt a weird sensation in his chest and it was just raging to break out. Whoever this Lee was, he was definitely giving Ryouu an impressionable match.

"Now there is one more monster I must summon before I can finish my move. I'll summon my Altar Wolf to my field" then a dark gray wolf appeared sided with the others, purple aura emanating from it (1900/1700).

"All three of my monsters are Apperitions, so all of them have effects. Effects that make them that much more dangerous when they are together... My Mother Wolf will give birth to any of my fallen monsters. My Leader of the Pack will give my monsters' courage and power. During my turn, you won't be able to activate any effects that would destroy them. My Altar Wolf can relinquish my monsters' attacks to destroy cards on your field... Together, there is little you can do to defend against my monsters."

Lee held a dignified look on his face even as he looked at the three ferocious monsters that opposed him. "Bring it on..."

"Gladly" retorted the young silverette. Then his Leader charged at Joanna, only to be deflected by a holographic shield.

"I active my face down Shield trap card. It holds the ability to protect my monster from destruction up to three times. Your Leader may put restrictions on the cards I can activate during your turn, but his effect won't prevent this card."

Ryouu stared in defeat. He knew his Obelisk opponent was right. But just because he couldn't take out Joanna didn't mean his turn was over.

"Fine. Altar, you're up. Destroy Jonathan with you Celestial Stride!" the wolf faded into a swirling purple energy; Its only remainders were its giant teeth. They flew up and easily ripped through Jonathan. Lee's life points dropped down to 1600.

"And now to end my turn, I sacrifice Mother Wolf's attack this turn to destroy your Rocket Launcher!" Like before, the Altar Wolf nudged Mother wolf, giving her the power to howl and destroy Joanna's mighty weapon. But as Ryouu ended his turn, Joanna's attack points skyrocketed to a mighty 3000!

"Sorry once again Ryouu, but because you destroyed Jonathan in battle, Joanna gained a 1000 point boost."

Ryouu felt like kicking himself. Even as he made a decisive comeback, he still fell into Lee's trap.

"At least you won't be able to destroy my monsters, thanks to my MoonLight Prowl."

Lee nodded and drew from his deck, replenishing his hand count. A small, almost unseen smile spread across his lips as he took note of the newly drawn card.

"I will equip Joanna with my X-Ray Goggles. This will relieve her of all floating effects, which means she _will _be able to do some damage to you!" As Joanna placed the goggles on her face, she whipped out her Silencer and took aim at Ryouu female monster. The attack was precise and effective. After the attack, Ryouu's monster was gone and his life points sat at a dangerously low 400.

Lee nodded to his opponent, signifying the end of his turn. Ryouu drew from his deck, eyes closed with concentration. Ryouu could feel the auras emanating from the cards he held in his hand. Just by feeling the energy they released, Ryouu knew what his next move would be. He knew how he was going to finish the duel.

Then he snapped his eyes opened, revealing the determined look that came with the orbs of violet.

"First, I shall use Altar Wolf's effect and sacrifice both of my monsters' attacks to destroy your Shield and Silencer" Lee watched with confusion as his two equip cards were removed from the field, Joanna's attack points dropping to a still mighty 2800.

"Now I sacrifice my two monsters to summon my own signature monster" Ryouu did not state the monster's name, but it was still summoned nonetheless.

As his two wolves exploded into a wave of pixels, the pixels quickly re-gathered in the shape of a tall standing man floating some twenty feet in the air. The man wore a ceremonial Wolf hood and holy white wings. He was also garbed in traditional native clothing (25000/2500).

The floating spirits of the area began to gather around their sworn protector. All the reflexive eyes in the area focused on Raiku as well. They all watched as he slowly descended. Once his feet finally touched down on the lush green grass, he was energized by the power of the field spell, making him the more dominant creature (3000/3000).

Lee's mouth hung agape as he stared at the impressive new monster. Most of the class was in a similar state of surprise, save for Mr. Kyoto, Nizone, Misui, and select others.

"Now I'm going to play my final card. It's a spell called Essence Barrage. By removing an Apperition from my grave" and to this he slid his Altar Wolf into his back pocket, "My Raiku can attack twice this turn!"

As a vague shadow of the Altar Wolf embraced the warrior, Lee stared in disbelief. It was inevitable. He had nothing to protect him, and his life points were just too low to survive two attacks from Ryouu's monster...

After suffering for several seconds of grief, the blunette gave Ryouu an approving nod.

Ryouu smirked back and declared his attack. Raiku threw two ethereal punches. The first phantom punch went through Joanna's stomach, and the second was aimed straight at Lee. He was blown back by the force, and his life points plummeted to 0.

Ryouu had won the duel.

After the duel, both students shook hands and returned to their seats. Professor Kyoto returned to the center of the class with an amused smile on his face.

"Very nice duel my young students. Now for the homework assignment, I would like all of you to write a four page essay on each duelist, analyzing their individual dueling styles and contrasting the two" the class let out a collective groan. Just that moment, the bell rang to dismiss them for their next class.

Misui, Ryouu, and Nizone all walked together down the hallway, talking of the boys duel. Apparently the homework assignment couldn't compare to a nice chance to have a fun duel.

* * *

******And there is the end to chapter 6. As always, feedback is greatly appreciated. I look forward to hearing what you have to say, and constructive criticism is always welcomed.**

**This is Rizengan01 signing out**


	7. An Untamed Spirit, A Confused Soul

**Author's note: Hello faithful viewers, I know it's been a while, but I finally posted chapter 6! XD This chapter and a few of its followings will be a little different from the other chapters I have done. Mainly, it will be the forefront for the main plot. The characters will also be more developed in depth, and their pasts will also be explored. But this only pertains to the main cast. The other characters will be explored in later chapters. With that, on with the chapter!**

**As of August 2nd, 2012 this chapter has been edited. Hopefully it'll be more enjoyable this way**

_**Spirits UnBound**_

_**An Untamed Spirit, A Confused Soul!**_

* * *

It was late at night. The sky was a sickly black with few pale clouds sparsely floating overhead. A vast number of stars could be seen, but the sheer amount of them would make any onlooker feel small and insignificant. Even the moon seemed dull and lifeless, its crescent shape doing little to give it a vibrant feel.

A certain white haired violet eyed duelist laid outside, atop the roof of the Ra Yellow dorm. It would have been a curious sight to anyone that were to witness it; some random boy, in the middle of the night, lying on top of a building that was easily 6 stories high. But to the young boy, there was nothing weird about it. It was merely his escape...

* * *

_After his duel with Lee in his Duel Psychology class, word spread of a particularly skilled Ra Yellow that beat an Obelisk Blue._

_Before the boy knew it, he was faced by several other students, all trying to duel him. It was as if beating Lee had placed a target on his back. _

_Not wanting to earn an unwanted reputation, the boy opted to completely avoid confrontation. _

_By the end of the day, the young boy practically had a bounty on his head. He decided to go somewhere nobody would look for him, so he went to the roof of his dorm..._

* * *

Ryouu was lying flat down, staring at the sky. He laid there for a long time, just staring, staring into the vast, lifeless sky.

Before long, he slipped into a peaceful sleep. It made him smile. His dreams were the one place he could always feel safe. But he didn't sleep long. Just as quickly as he fell asleep, he was also woken up.

In fact, it was the feint sensation of a tongue rubbing against his cheek that woke the boy up.

His eyes slowly, groggily, slid opened. Then, when vision returned to him, Ryouu turned his head just enough so that he could see the intruder. Much to his suspicion, it was a small feline being that was licking his tanned cheek.

The boy slowly sat up, never taking his gaze off the small, seemingly transparent feline. It was actually a very familiar monster to him. He instantly knew what the creature was as soon as he saw its familiar white fur, its light green stripes, its large baby blue mane, its, green bushy tail, and its large, incredibly large cerulean tinted eyes. He instantly knew this being, his spiritual companion, _Baby Raiku..._

* * *

_As long as the boy could remember, the boy could always see spirits. Baby Raiku was always his companion, but it wasn't the only spirit he could see. He always had the innate ability to see his own spirit, to see other peoples' spirits, and even to see wild, feral spirits._

_This sixth sense of his also leaked over into his dueling ability. Just by glancing at his opponent, he could see their energy radiating off of them. Not very practical, but it was an easy way for the boy to tell get a rough estimate of how skilled a duelist was._

_But there was more to this spiritual and vision and his duels than just being able to sense how strong a duelist was. He could also feel what his cards wanted._

_As strange a concept as it seemed, Ryouu could feel what his cards wanted, and usually, acted on what they felt. During his duels, he listened to the cards, felt what they felt, and did as they wanted. Whichever card was releasing the most energy, that was what he played._

_As unorthodox as it seemed, it worked. The boy's unique dueling style won him many battles, in fact it that was this very ability that led him to defeat Lee in their duel only hours go._

_But it also left him with an empty feeling inside. There just wasn't as much joy in a duel when you weren't the one calling the shots. Because of this, he typically tried not to use his powers, though that was easier said than done._

* * *

As the small transparent animal licked his cheek again, Ryouu was brought back to reality. He slowly sat up and stared at his comrade for several seconds before patting the animal on the head, and scratching it behind its ear, the young cub's favorite activity.

The young wolf rolled over with joy, a moment that made the boy smile a genuine smile.

But as the boy continued to play with his wolf spirit, a new figure came from behind.

The shadowy figure stood there for several minutes, watching the tanned silverette play with his spirit partner. It continued to watch the two for several more seconds, an increasingly large frown was apparent on the figure's face.

Finally, the shadow spoke, instantly grabbing Ryouu's attention.

The violet eyed boy jerked his head in the direction of the intruding voice... He was surprised to see what looked like a person, maybe about 7 feet tall, dressed in an all-black cloak.

Ryouu immediately stood up to face the figure, Raiku crouched in a defensive position as he did.

_"Foolish boy"_ the being began to speak. It stood in the same place, completely unmoving.

Ryouu looked on warily. He didn't know who, or what, this figure was, but he certainly wasn't going to let it intimidate him.

_"You have a gift... The ability to tap into the spirits... The ability to interact with the supernatural... Yet you waste your gift. You stand her before me, not utilizing your ability, but rather sitting there, playing with an insignificant spirit..."_

Ryouu had about all he could take. He balled if his in an attempt to gain control over her anger. He was trembling, trembling with rage.

_"Are you mad now?"_ the figure inquired. But even through its monotone voice, it was apparent that the question was intended to be sarcastic.

Then the figure lifted its head, slowly, so that it was staring at the moon. As the moonlight bounced off of its face, Ryouu was able to get just enough of a glimpse to determine that the being in front of him was definitely a man... Definitely human.

"Who are you?"

But the man just stood there, glaring at the boy. He gave no immediate answer. Instead, he allowed his own _shadow _to come alive with movement!

The young silverette stared in disbelief as the figures shadow, far larger than it should have been from the overhead light source, began to rise from the ground!

After a few breathless moments, the shadow was now standing directly behind the figure, towering at a frightful 30 feet tall! It had also adopted the form of a dragon, majestic green scales and fire-red hair making all the more intimidating.

Ryouu looked at the hulking beast with a terrified expression. His comrade behind him, whimpering with its tail between its legs.

_"Now I will show you what can be accomplished when you actually harness the powers you are given"_ the figure warned cryptically, leaving Ryouu to ponder the meaning of the words.

But the boy didn't have to wait long. Almost immediately after its master spoke, the giant dragon reared its head back and began to concentrate a massive amount of energy in its maw. It was about to attack!

_'Crap...' _was all the silverette had time to think before the monster unleashed the chaotic blast upon him.

The sheer force from the blast was incredible. It nearly incinerated his yellow blazer merely on impact. But it also had amazing blow-back force. The boy could feel himself falling. He knew that attack knocked him off roof. Time seemed to slow down as the boy fell to his demise.

The boy's spirit partner reacted almost instantly, leaping off the roof and following after its master.

The figure watched with a displeasing frown on the small part of his face that could be seen. He turned around, preparing to leave.

But as the figure slowly walked away, a flaming sensation was sent throughout his body. He quickly turned around, knowing full well that Ryouu was right there, waiting to get his attention.

And he was. But the monster that accompanied him was no longer the small white club; instead it was his Guardian warrior Raiku, wearing its familiar tribal clothing and its wings glowing gallantly.

The angelic wings were wrapped around Ryouu in a way that was reminiscent of the Chancellor and his own protective spirit.

Ryouu may have been in pain, but at that moment, he was ready for battle. His crystal violet eyes were staring deep at shadowed figure, radiating an incredible amount of rage. They were glowing brighter than even the brightest of stars.

The figure looked on with a hint of interest. Maybe this boy didhave a bit of control over his powers. This might have just turned into an exciting battle.

The two appeared to be at a stalemate, neither party made a single move. A gust of wind traveled around the two, creating a spiral of sand in between them...

Ryouu's eyes shot wide opened! This distraction was all he needed. It was his moment to attack, and he would seize it.

He threw his left hand forward, pointing his index directly at the hooded figure. He'd wordlessly commanded his monster to go on the offensive.

The wolf-based warrior flew at the opponents at an incredible speed, his left arm cocked back and prepared to deal a mighty blow. Sapphire flames were spiraling around his arm, making him seem all the more dangerous.

The giant green dragon lunged in front of its master defensively. It folded its wings so that they would absorb most of the damage.

When both monsters finally collided, the force of impact causing a shock-wave that blew back both creatures.

The dragon used this rebound as an opportunity to strike its adversary. It slammed Raiku with a powerful tail whip, sending the warrior skidding across the roof floor. It didn't relent on its assault; it followed the warrior, continuously releasing chaotic blasts from its maw. The warrior was pelted relentlessly.

Ryouu watched in horror as his monster was repeatedly bombarded by the incoming blasts. "Dammit! Raiku, please get up!"

The warrior was grounded, seemingly lifeless...

But as the young boy pleaded with his monster, it seemed to respond. Raiku let out a ferocious roar as it was engulfed in its own blue flames, forming a cocoon of sorts.

When the flames dispersed, the monster that stood no longer looked like the familiar warrior.

Instead of the familiar tribal garb he had been wearing previously, the boy's warrior monster was now dressed in a dark spandex-like outfit. Atop the clothing were several pieces of platinum armor. It wore an armor chest plate and shoulder pads that were shaped like wolf paws. He also had on armor gauntlets and boots shaped likes claws with blue flames spiraling around them. His wolf helmet also had a metallic tint to it. His previously angelic wings were now burning with the familiar sapphire flames. Its long brown hair flowed in the wind. Raiku had transformed!

It pushed itself off the ground and took flight, making sure to avoid all of the incoming blasts that the dragon sent his way.

"Follow him" the hooded figure ordered with a hint of malice in his voice. He was caught off guard by the monster's sudden transformation, but that wouldn't be enough to best him. He scowled at the thought.

Then the green dragon once again lunged at the flying warrior, its mouth wide opened. It was planning to bite out a huge chunk of his adversary.

But this time Raiku was ready. Before the dragonic beast could bite him, the platinum warrior deployed a power shield made of the sapphire blue flames. The dragon slammed into the shield and was instantly sent plummeting. Now it was Raiku's turn to go on the offensive.

The platinum warrior charged at the dragon. When they were finally leveled, Raiku plunged his left hand deep into the opposing monster's abdomen, before following through with several more vicious blows.

The two opposing forced had been battling for minutes now, both sides obviously feeling the effects. Ryouu was down to both knees, trying his hardest to ignore the strain on his body and concentrate on feeding Raiku more power.

The hooded figure was also slumped over with fatigue, though it was harder to tell because of the cloak. His dragon was currently in a losing battle against Ryouu's mighty warrior. In truth, this scuffle was more than the figure bargained for. He needed a way to end this battle, and he had an idea of how to do it.

As the two monsters continued to battle, the figure's shadow once again began to extend and alter its shape. Before long, a new monster appeared, raring for battle.

It was a majestic looking monster, though fairly hard to describe. It was almost as if a knight and a dragon had performed some fusion ritual, creating this new beast. Like a knight, it donned midnight blue armor with golden trim, and even wielded a mighty roman-styled sword. It also had the same overall physique, as it stood on two legs. But it was also unmistakably dragon-like. It had sharp claws and scaly skin, as well as an enlarged maw and huge blue and green wings. It lunged into battle, aiding its dragon partner.

The two forces were more than Raiku could handle; they easily overpowered the wolf warrior.

As Ryouu watched helplessly, his signature monster was sent reeling, slamming into the ground mere inches from his feet. The monster gave a weak grunt before bursting into a shower blue pixels, by which were absorbed into the silverette's body.

Ryouu wiped away the tears, then he reared his head up, only to come face-to-face with a hooded figure, a mighty dragon, and a majestic, but deadly knight. "Game over" were the only words that rang through the boy's ears as he was violently blasted by the two monsters.

The combined fire of the two beasts completely consumed the young boy. The pain was unbearable. The boy could feel himself being reduced to little more than a pile of ash. Hit bit down on his lip. It was all he could do to not yell in pain.

The hooded figure watched in satisfaction as his monsters relented on their assault. He snapped his fingers. Then his monsters faded back into his shadow. The young Ra Yellow was slouched over, completely unconscious, and burned almost to an unrecognizable status.

With that, the figure departed...

* * *

Ryouu shot up from his bed, drenched in sweat and hyperventilating profusely. He looked around frantically, expecting to see his monstrous opponents.

But much to the boy's surprise, instead of meeting a ferocious dragon or deadly warrior, or even the hooded figure, he was met the confused gaze of his roommate Nizone.

His landscape had since changed from the rooftop to the familiar comforts of his dorm room. For one unexplained reason or another, he was home.

"What's wrong Ryouu? Are you alright?"

Ryouu sat up and wiped the sweat off his brow. "I'm fine Nizone, I just..." the silverette didn't know what to say. He couldn't very well tell his best friend about the dream he just had. Come to think of it, he wasn't even sure if it _was _a dream. It just felt so real...

"What happened" Nizone questioned once more, a worried look in his eyes. "After class you just went missing. Lucky for you, that Slifer Carson found you passed out in the hallways. If he hadn't be nice enough to bring you here, lord knows what would've happened."

Ryouu threw the blanket from atop him before standing up. "I'm fine" the boy stated with an emotionless tint in his voice. He diverted his attention so he wouldn't have to look his best friend in the eyes.

Thinking for a moment, Ryouu placed his hand on the belt that was placed around his waist. He grabbed his deck box and pulled out his cards.

The first card he saw was Baby Raiku. It sent an involuntary chill down his spine. He cringed at the thought of his... dream.

He began ruffling through his deck, studying each of his cards one by one. When he reached about half way through his deck, he stopped and stared at the card that he now faced. It seemed so familiar, and yet so unknown.

The card he was staring at was his familiar Raiku: Guardian of the Ancient Lands. He started at if for a while, looking at the cards art work. Like before, Raiku was wearing his traditional Native garb, as opposed to the platinum armor. He didn't know what to make of it all.

"What's wrong Ryouu?" Nizone placed his hand on his friend in an attempt to comfort him. But Ryouu wasn't comforted in the slightest.

_'So Raiku didn't transform..?'_ he thought to himself, the scowl still present on his tanned face. His bangs fell down so that they overshadowed his eyes._ 'Then that means I really didn't have that encounter with that guy. And those monsters...'_

Then he slid his deck back in its box and returned his attention to Nizone. That's when he noticed the intense worried look on his friends face. He scratched the back of his head and began to chuckle nervously.

"Sorry dude, I just... Had a bad dream. But it's over now."

"Well that's good. Maybe you should just lie down and watch some TV, yeah!" the brunette offered earnestly.

Ryouu nodded in understanding and once again lied down on his bed. Then Nizone grabbed the TV remote and turned on the tube. In a few minutes, they were watching their favorite channel: D-Time TV.

* * *

_At some dueling arena..._

"Ladies and gentlemen, tonight we have a killer of a match!" An announcer yelled into his microphone. The crowd erupted into wave of screams and cheers.

"Tonight we have the Pro League Champion Masuchi dueling against the challenger, the big bruiser, Max Striker!"

Then, onto the field came a boy, slightly older than either Nizone or Ryouu.

He wore a white bandanna with black markings around his head that matched perfectly with his white muscle shirt and tight black jeans. He also had on white shoes with black shoe laces and outside soles. His duel disk was standard issue battle city style, and he had a very tan complexion that rivaled Ryouu's. His hair was brown, but the only part of it that could be seen was the long bangs that hung under the bandanna. His name was Masuchi, and he was the Pro League champion.

His opponent, a tall muscular brute, was already on the other side of the arena. He'd been patiently waiting for the champion to arrive, and now that he was here, the duel was about to begin.

"I'll start off" the champion stated confidently. Then, with one fluid motion, he ripped the top six cards from his deck. His opponent followed his lead and drew his starting five, though not with nearly as much of a fluid motion.

Masuchi stared at his hand for all of a nanosecond before deciding on his play. He grinned as he held up one of his cards, showing off its green back.

"Since I don't actually have the monster in my hand, I'll just summon it using the spell card Sunny Day" the champion stated enthusiastically as he activated a spell card that caused a ray of sun to shine over the two duelists.

"This card allows me to special summon my favorite little dude from my hand, deck, or graveyard to the field" the figure said as a card popped slightly out of his deck; then he grabbed it and vigorously slammed it onto his duel disk.

"Meet SunnyMan" he roared as a small figure appeared.

It was about a foot tall and wore orange pants and a yellow shirt, but the most peculiar thing about it was its head. It was about the same height as its body, but it was a yellow ball with spikes around it, reminiscent of a cartoon sun (Ask: 500, Def: 500).

You really think that little thing will stand a chance against me?" the opposing duelist mocked.

Masuchi just watched his opponent as an everlasting smirk stretched across his visage.

"Now for my normal summon; I'm dishing out RainyMan in attack mode!" Masuchi called out another cartoony monster.

This one looked a lot like SunnyMan, except his pants were dark blue, his shirt was light blue, and his comically oversized head looked like a cartoonized raindrop (Atk: 500, Def: 500).

"Now you see my monsters' have special effects, and when they're on the field at the same time, I can fuse them without Polymerization. So now I send them to the grave to summon the fusion monster Raging SteamHero!"

The two tiny creatures stood next to each other and began to perform some ritual with one another in a comical fashion. When the two finished their fusion dance, their bodies merged together to form a new monster.

It was a normal sized man that wore an all blue outfit jumpsuit with sparse yellow armor. He wielded incredible flaming hair and palms (Atk: 2100, Def: 1600).

"And this monster has a special ability, which allows me to special summon one of my elemental monsters from my hand to the field when he's summoned. I think I'll dish out LightningMan!" As Masuchi slapped down another card on his duel disk, another monster appeared on his side of his field.

This one looked like the first two except it wore blue pants, a yellow shirt, and had a round blue head with a yellow lightning bolt going down the middle (Atk: 500, Def: 500).

"Now its special ability activates; it can only be activated when its special summoned without the effect of the spell card Lightning Rod. Anyway, when its effect is activated, I can add one card from the grave to my hand" the boy said as he took Sunny Day from the grave and placed it on disk.

"Now I get to summon SunnyMan back to my field. You see, when he's added to my hand outside of the draw phase, he can be special summoned to the field if I so wish. Let's give a warm welcome" he said as the small monster appeared next to the equally small LightningMan. "Now I activate their effect, so I place them back to the grave to summon the fusion monster PlasmaHero".

The two monsters participated in the comical fusion dance. The end result was a tall man in a green skin tight jump suit. He had blue fire emanating from his back, and hair made of green lightning (Atk: 2300, Def: 1000).

"Now I end my turn"

As Max drew from his deck, he stared at Masuchi's monster with an unimpressed look on his face.

"You think those wussy fusion monsters will be enough to stop me? I play the spell card Monster Reborn to bring back _your_ SunnyMan on my side of the field, but he won't be here for long because I sacrifice him to play this monster in face down defense. Now I end my turn" Striker's said in a cocky manner.

"My turn, draw" the champion ripped the top card off his deck enthusiastically as he started his turn.

"I attack your face down monster with my Raging SteamHero" Masuchi said as his monster shot a chunk of steaming water at the face down monster.

"Sorry sucker but my face down monster was Nobleman Eater-Bug, so by attacking it you caused its flip effect to activate, so now both your monsters' are destroyed" the cocky opponent said as his monstrous bug devoured the opposing hero monsters.

"Like I wasn't expecting that… My monsters' effect activates so when their destroyed, one of their fusion material monsters are summoned from the grave" Masuchi said. "RainyMan returns for Raging SteamHero and LightningMan returns from PlasmaHero. And thanks to their effects, I can fuse them without the use of polymerization" the champion said as the two mini monsters fused to create yet another fusion.

This one was about as tall as the other fusion monsters (the height of an average duel monster) and wore an all blue spandex outfit with yellow lightning bolts covering its limbs. Its hair was long and white like wind, but with several strands resembling lightning bolts.

"Meet Swirling StormHero (Atk: 2000, Def: 1700). Now whenever this monster is fusion summoned, you lose 500 life points for every one of my elemental monsters in the grave, and I count three, so you lose 1500 life points" Masuchi said happily as his monster threw a lightning bolt at Max, striking him in the chest and dropping his life points down to 2500.

"Now I attack your life points directly" Masuchi ordered as his monster threw another lightning bolt at his opponent, this time dropping him down to 500 life points. "I think that's enough superhero-ing it up for this turn. Have at it, dude."

Striker was seething with anger. _'How dare this schoolboy punk treat me like some third rate duelist_' he thought to himself as he ripped off the top card from his deck. '_I'll show him'_

"I Summon Drillago in attack mode (Atk: 1600) and equip him with Ambiance of Power, so now he gains 500 attack points and you lose an extra 1000 points of damage during this battle phase. Now I attack your Swirling StormHero" the opponent ordered as Drillago stabbed the man in the gut, destroying him.

"Why didn't you lose life points?"

"Simple. Thanks to GravelMan's (Atk: 500, Def: 500) effect, when I'm about to receive damage, I can send him from my hand to the grave to the grave to stop the battle damage; this includes your extra 1000 points of damage" Masuchi mocked as he sent a card from his hand to the grave. "And since my fusion monster was sent to the grave, I get to add one of his fusion material monsters from the grave back to my field, and I choose RainyMan."

"I end my turn."

"My turn, draw" Masuchi said eagerly as he drew his third card.

"Well I just drew the card that will help me win. I play the spell card Lightning Rod, so now I can special summon LightningMan from my hand, deck, or grave. Since I have him in my grave, I will summon him from there" Masuchi said as the little oversized lightning-headed creature appeared next to RainyMan.

"And just like before, I activate their effect to fuse them without using Polymerization" Masuchi said as the monsters danced once again and combined to form Swirling StormHero.

"And don't forget his effect, since there are 4 of my elemental creatures in the grave, you lose 2000 life points" Masuchi said as his monster threw a lightning bolt at his opponent, dropping his life points down to 0.

Striker roared in anger as the holograms disappeared. He deactivated his duel disk and promptly exited the building before anyone had time to speak with him.

Masuchi followed his opponent's lead and deactivated his duel disk. Then, with a sly smirk, he began to egg on the crowd, waving at them to increase their cheers.

"And there you have it ladies and gentlemen" the announcer began. "And with a flawless victory, our winner is Masuchi!"

* * *

Nizone watched the ending of the duel with great enthusiasm. Ryouu watched his friend's excited demeanor and chuckled a bit. Masuchi was Nizone's favorite duelist, so it was no surprise that the boy got all worked up.

He them reclined in his bed. Today had proved a long day for him; hopefully tomorrow would be better.

* * *

**And that's the end of chapter 6! Holy cow that took forever to write. I wanted to show the more serious aspects of the story without revealing too much :D lol cruel right? Anyway, hopefully I will be able to finish the next chapter a lot sooner than this one. It was really hard to try and explain the supernatural phenomenon without revealing too much info. I hope y'all enjoyed the chapter and decide to review!**

**P.S. Masuchi is one of my all-time favorite characters, OC or canon. He uses a deck of elemental contact fusion based monsters (Darn Jaden Yuki for stifling my creativity), but to a more intense degree. He's also 19, been Pro League champion for a year, and has a very energetic/mischievous/enthusiastic attitude. He's just a fun character to write about. It was actually my best friend that designed Masuchi! Catch you later**

******And there is the end to chapter 7. As always, feedback is greatly appreciated. I look forward to hearing what you have to say, and constructive criticism is always welcomed.**

**This is Rizengan01 signing out**


	8. Elements Clash! Pt 1

**Author's Note: Yesterday I posted chapter 6 and saw that I'd received 5 reviews in only a few hours. IT made me soo happy that you guys respond so well to my story! So I would like to thank PrincessAnime08, patattack, The Duelist of Dawn, DarkStormNoD, and my best bud ThreesandFives, not only for your reviews, but also for your dedication! I would also like to thank anyone else out there that has been keeping up with the story, even if you haven't left a review, Thanks XD... With that, one with the chapter!**

**Update: As of August 2nd, 2012 this chapter has been edited. Hopefully it'll be more enjoyable this way**

_**SPIRITS: UNBOUND**_

_**Chapter 7: Elements Clash! Sibling Rivalry at its Finest**_

* * *

The next day, school went on as per usual. Ryouu was currently sitting in his seat in his Ancient History 101 classroom. His face was lazily fitted in the palm of his hand as he slouched over in his seat. He watched the teacher speak of Ancient Egypt with little enthusiasm. It's wasn't that the class was boring, but ever since yesterday, he had more pressing matters on his mind than how the Egyptians were the basis for a modern day card game.

His head slowly drifted to the left, his violet eyes staring out of the window.

Two white doves could be seen, flying majestically with one another. As one flew up, the other followed. If one took a nose-dive, the other mimicked its actions. The two seemed to engage in an artful dance, full of swooping and chasing, neither bird being the clear leader...

Ryouu was quickly snapped back into attention by the sound of his teacher's voice. And by the sound if it, it was clear that she was annoyed.

Ryouu turned his attention to her, a confused look on his face.

"I'll repeat the question once more Mr. Tetsu" the female teacher stated impatiently as she pushed adjusted the glasses that lined her face.

"Which Egyptian pharaoh was responsible for the sacrifice of over 2,000 of the countries farm life?"

Ryouu laughed nervously as he scratched the back of his head. The teacher was staring with a disapproving scowl, her arms crossed under her bosom as her foot tapped impatiently.

Suddenly, the hand of another student flew in the air.

Like Ryouu, this student wore the familiar yellow blazer. His hair was pulled back and shaped much like a duck tail, blond as it was. He had an excited look on his face.

"Hmm, fine. What is the correct answer Mr. Yuki?"

The boy stood up before speaking, making sure to have the classes undivided attention. "That would be Pharaoh Ahknumen II"

A small smirk graced the teacher's face before she returned her attention to the silver haired boy. "That is correct Baken. Mr. Tetsu, you could stand to learn from him" then she went on about her lecture.

Ryouu slouched back over as he cupped his head back into the palm of his hand lazily. "Tch" he clicked his tongue as his eyes glanced at the boy that just showed him up. _'Showoff'_...

* * *

_Later On..._

It was now after the final class of the day. Students were doing their own thing now, but on this particular day, most had gathered at the courtyard in a mob-like circle.

Apparently Keiko was tired of her Slifer Red status, and so she set out to move up in the ranks.

After hearing of Ryouu's defeating Lee, she decided that she too would showcase her skill by defeating Ras and Obelisks alike. With the power of her Apollo monster, Keiko quickly made a name for herself as the most powerful Slifer at the Academy.

* * *

_At this moment in time_...

Our gang had just finished their final class for the day and decided to chill outside; it really was a beautiful day after all. The sun was shining in the clear blue sky, birds were singing their cheerful songs, the tree leaves rustled in the slight breeze, giving the appearance of a dance. And the cool 71 degree weather felt quite nice against the gang's skin.

Ryouu was leaning up against a tree, his arms casually crossed against his chest. Misui was sitting on the grass, legs crossed Indian style. And Nizone was doing push-ups. But there was one other person that was with the group. She was sitting nearer Misui in the same criss-cross fashion, her long cerulean hair flowing in the breeze as her vibrant grey eyes looked at the other female. This girl was Kairi, and she was Misui's roommate.

The four Ra yellow students all sat in mutual silence, just enjoying themselves; that was, except Nizone. He had just finished his rep of 50 push-ups and was now anxious to do something else. The sore feeling in his arms and pectorals only intensified his need to do something.

"so you guys, I was thinking about challenging Keiko" the brunette said with a confident smirk. This statement caused a shocked reaction from his friends; Misui was the first to voice her opinion.

"Nizone you've said a lot of crazy things over the years that I've known you..." she spoke with a disapproving tone; her hands on her hips to add emphasis to her doubt. "And this is one of them. Why would you even want to deal with that snobby little princess?"

The young boy only smirked at the question. "It's not really that hard to figure out. Keiko has a reputation for being a powerful opponent, and I don't really have a reputation at all. If I can defeat her, then I'll gain a powerful reputation for myself..."

But before he could finish his declarative statement, Misui had decided she'd heard enough of his speech and decided to interrupt him.

"Ouch!" was the sound that escaped the poor boy's lungs. He began to hop around as he clutched his shin in an attempt to sooth the pain. Yes, Misui had kicked him.

Many people looked on at the boy, confusion apparent on their faces. Nizone, once he noticed the unwanted attention, released his shin and tried to look as normal as possible, though the embarrassed blush on his face was hard to ignore.

He gave Misui a quick angry glance before he stormed off to challenge the proclaimed Queen of Slifer Red.

* * *

_With Keiko..._

The young girl had just defeated another Slifer in a duel and deactivated her duel disk. Oddly enough, she had no cards on her field, so there was no holograms that faded away.

She looked across the field at her defeated opponent. He face contorted into a frightful scowl. "That was pathetic. I didn't even summon one of my more powerful monsters. I mean really, who loses to an effect like that of my Chariot?"

The young boy, who had just been defeated, looked around frantically. His cards had been strewn about the floor, which, he himself was lying on.

He stood up to feet and scooped up his cards before running off, the red tint of embarrassment highlighting his face.

A smirk spread across the Slifer queen's face as she watched the poor boy flee. Her stone black eyes began to survey the crowd around her. she looked at them all with a look of superiority, almost as she were saying _'look at me you fools. You all are beneath me! I am your superior!'_

As her eyes watched over the sea of unfamiliar faces, a twinkle appeared in her right eye. She spotted a familiar face, the face of a boy that troubled her on the ride here, and the face of her next victim.

Likewise, Nizone had laid eyes on Keiko. Though it would seem like an ignorable act, seeing the Slifer queen, surrounded by all those people, wearing her smirk of false superiority as she watched him approach only strengthened Nizone's resolve.

His face hardened as he slid his deck into his duel disk, Keiko silently doing the same. It was time for a showdown.

Once Nizone was confident he was within earshot of the girl, he finally spoke. "Keiko, Queen of Slifer Red, I challenge you to a..." but before the brunette was able to extend his challenge, another figure flung its self in between the two.

The figure was obviously female, if the slim, curvy physique was anything to go by. She had long platinum blond hair that flowed over her white and blue blazer. Her pearl white eyes were glaring at Keiko. But even with the fiery gaze, she still held an upbeat smile on her face that betrayed a friendly deposition.

She wasted no time in booting up her duel disk as she herself threw a challenge to the Slifer Queen. "Keiko, you wish to show of your skills as a duelist. Well then I challenge you!"

Nizone's face turned a ferocious crimson red as he stared at the blue clad female in front of him. He was already in a hardened state of mind, so the interruption this person provided was more than enough to enrage the boy.

"Hell no! Nazonei, you know I was about to challenge her" he roared to his sister, the blue clad intruder. "Why don't you just go back to your prissy little Obelisk Blue dorm and let me take care of this chick!"

The blond turned around to face her brother, a friendly smile on her face as she did so. "Oh, hey _Zoo-Zoo_, I didn't see you there" she stated innocently.

This statement, coupled with his nickname, only served to increase Nizone's anger. He balled his fist, but stayed silent.

"Well no offense bro, but Keiko may be a bit out of your league. I think it would be best if you just let me duel her"

By this time, Nizone had had enough. He flung his duel disk forward as he activated it, his life point counter registered at 4000.

"You know what Nazonei, you think you're_ so much_ better than me, buy you're not. I'm tired of you always trying to be the better sibling. I'm about to shut you up once and for all".

Nazonei turned her body around fully so that her entire being face her brother. She smiled her usual friendly smile before speaking.

"Fine then _Zoo-Zoo_, I'll duel you. The winner can challenge Keiko!" 4000.

Both duelists nodded before drawing their five starting hands, Nizone drawing an additional one.

Keiko stared with a dumbfounded look on her face; as did most of the crowd. These two had just stolen her spotlight with their inappropriate case of sibling rivalry. The Slifer Queen did a very anime-like sweat drop as she prepared to watch the upcoming duel.

Meanwhile, Misui, Ryouu, and Kairi had followed Nizone and were now standing amongst the crowd. They're faces were red with embarrassment as they watched the two bickering twins.

Kairi leaned over to Misui and asked, "What's their problem?"

Misui shook her head with false sorrow... Or maybe it was disappointment, it was hard to tell.

She looked at her blue haired roommate for minute. As she stared at her, Misui was reminded that Kairi had only been a member of the group for little more than a couple weeks now. She wasn't with them before they came to the Academy, so she really couldn't be expected to know of the rivalry between Nizone and his twin.

Misui sighed. She hated talking about it, not because it was traumatic but because of all drama it had caused throughout the years. She exhaled slowly.

"Well first off, those two are twins... Fraternal" she inserted as an after-thought after observing the shocked expression on Kairi's face. "Not surprisingly, Nizone was the first to be birthed, making him the oldest sibling. I think Nazonei was born an hour later? Not to sure... Anyway, Nizone is the older sibling. Now this wouldn't seem like much of a problem" then Misui paused, much to Kairi's dismay.

She smirked. These types of pauses always created suspense and made a story seem dramatic. She enjoyed that. "... but the thing about these two is that Nazonei has the bad habit of being the best at everything she tries" a slight look disgust passed over the girls face as she said this. It only lasted for a fraction of a second, but it was long enough for Kairi to notice it. the blunette assumed that Nazonei's supposed perfection had led to some conflict in the past.

"Anything the two did together, or against each other, Nazonei was always better. It was a bitter feeling of inferiority to his younger sister that made Nizone so angry around her. And her always cheeky attitude just further increases his malice. But really, I can't blame him. Shoot, her natural perfection even pisses me off..."

Keiko fingered her chin in mock concentration. "Do that's why he's so bent on becoming a famous duelist. He wants to prove that it's one thing he's better at then her.

Misui nodded her head in silent agreement.

"But unfortunately, he's not a better duelist. At least not right now" both female duelists turned to see it was Ryouu who'd spoken. The boy hadn't turned to face them, but by the way he'd spoken, it was obvious he'd been listening to the conversation.

"He isn't better than her, but hopefully he can at least put up a decent challenge and show off his skill"

* * *

_At the duel..._

Nizone had long since drawn his starting hand, but still hadn't made his move. Most opponents would badger him to hurry up, but not Nazonei. She just stood opposite him, waiting for him, watching him, and smiling at him.

The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. His brow furrowed and his face contorted into an uncomfortable frown._ 'Why does she have to be like that? Always happy, never mad, never anything bad. She's just_ so _perfect...'_

Snapping out of his thoughts, he took one more glance at his hand.

"Sorry little sis, but I think I'll take an early lead" he stated confidently as he held up a card, its green border was all that the girl could make out. "By using the spell card Ookazi, I can drain you of 800 of your life points!"

The ground around the girl was quickly set ablaze. Though she paid no attention to it, even as her life points took a dip (Na: 3200).

"Now that I've done some decent damage, I'll summon Elemental Hero Burstinatrix in attack mode" and as the cerulean eyed boy finished his statement, a female super hero appeared on his field, showered in a burst of pixels.

She had pale gray skin and long dark hair that was adorned with a golden tiara on top. Her red skin-tight outfit helped reflect her natural affinity to fire (1200/800).

Many of the crowd members watched the boys opening move with great distaste. Indistinct murmuring could be heard. He wasn't sure exactly what they were saying, but he definitely heard the vague talk of "some rip-off Elemental Hero duelist". The talk only made the boy smirk.

He slid a face down card behind his loan hero monster, signifying the end of his turn.

Nazonei mistook the smirk as a smile and returned the gesture to her brother, even as she ripped the top card from her deck. Her pearl colored eyes surveyed her hand for several seconds before concluding a move.

"Alright brother, here's a monster I'm sure you remember" she said, almost rhythmically, as she place two cards on her duel disk. Then a white armor-clad warrior appeared on the field, a trusty battle horse next to him.

"First off, I summon Sylph Warrior (1000/1000), and when he is normal summoned, I can special his Sylph Steed also to the field (500/500)!" Then the night leapt high into the air, coming down several moments later and landing atop the horse (1500/1000).

Nizone looked on with an unimpressed glare. "So you used your Steed's union effect to equip it to your Knight. Now he can't be destroyed by target effects".

The blond nodded with a smirk. Then she pointed at Nizone's female warrior. "Now Sylph Knight, attack that monster!"

As the Knight charged at his defending female warrior, Nizone smirked at his sister's foolish mistake.

"Come on sis, what a big mistake. I activate my Clone Barrage trap card" the boy ushered. Then, as the knight was about to cleave Burstinatrix in half, she disappeared in a poof of smoke, only to be replace by another image of her, wielding a mass of spiraling energy in her hand. She shoved it towards the warrior's chest, promptly destroying him and his noble steed.

"As I'm sure you know, by using Clone Barrage, I was able to send Burstinatrix to the grave, summon a new copy of her, equip it with Rasengan, _and _destroy your attacking monster all in one go! And the best part is, because it didn't target, your monster was destroyed!"

But Nizone's happiness was quickly destroyed.

"Sorry Zoo-Zoo, but that was a part of _my _plan. You see, now that I have more monster's than you in my graveyard, I can special summon Chrome Zephyr to the field!"

Then another shower of pixels overtook the field. When the shower subsided, there stood a tall man in Dark black armor, a large sword slung over his right shoulder (2000/2200).

A shocked expression was plastered on the brunette's face. "Darn, you knew what my face down was... You baited me... And I fell for it?"

Nazonei looked back at him and winked. "Yep. Sorry Zoo-Zoo but you always throw out a weak monster when you have that trap card. I'm just used to it"

Then her demeanor changed into a much more serious one as she directed her attention towards her brother's monster. "It's still my battle phase, so I'll have my Chrome Zephyr destroy that monster!"

As the large armored man sliced clean through the defending female warrior, Ryouu cringed.

_'Damn, Nizone isn't doing as well as he should be. Get your head back in the game and stop letting her psych you out'_

Nizone took that as his cue and drew from his deck. _'Darn, she managed to even us up with that last attack. That means I won't be able to use my spell card'_.

Then he glanced at the card he'd just drawn. "Not bad" he commented as he began to smirk.

"I'll set one monster and one spell or trap to end my turn".

Nazonei made sure to note how quickly her brother had made his move. She'd dueled him so many times in the past that she basically knew his style.

And if he made his move that fast, then he obviously had something planned.

"I'll activate Zephyr's effect, so by forfeiting my Draw Phase, I can take an equip card from my deck and add it to my hand" Nizone frowned as he sister took the select card from her deck. '_Rasengan_' he thought to himself.

* * *

_Meanwhile..._

While most students had either returned to their dorm room, or were out watching the duel, Baken storming down the hall, an unusual look of concentration upon the young blonde's face. As he stormed down the hallway leading to the Obelisk building, his mind began to replay the, rather upsetting conversation that had taken place mere moments ago.

_Baken had just left his Ancient History 101 classroom and was rather pumped. Thanks to his knowledge of the subject, he was able to help out a certain silver haired student during his time of need. Baken was also praised by the teacher for his mental excellence; an act that further boosted his energy level._

_After class, he decided to go check on his best friend Jin and see how he was doing._

_When he made it to his friend's Red dorm room, though, he was more than a little irked by what he saw. Jin was hard at work. So busy in fact that he did not even notice that Baken had entered the room._

_He had all of his cards strewn about the table, and was glaring in hard at the, his hand holding onto his chin as his brow furrowed in a familiar thinking pose. It was apparent that he was trying to reconstruct his deck to make it more precise and functional._

_It was, after all, due in part to his deck's sloppy structure that almost caused him to lose the duel against Hakoda._

_But as Baken watched the boy, it was not a feeling of joy and pride that burned in his chest, but that of betrayal and regret._

_Next to the door was a couple suitcases, presumably the one's Jin brought his belongings in. But what was so off-putting was that the bags were fully packed. As Baken surveyed the room with his bright caramel eyes, the lack of personal items made it apparent that Jin was planning to leave._

_"Jin, are you really gonna leave...?"_

_The young boy quickly turned around, shock evident on his face. His scarlet eyes conveyed an apologetic gleam to them._

_"I... I'm just not suited to be here" and as the boy spoke, his head drooped down, bangs overshadowing his eyes. "You... Kesado... Even many of the new students have shown so much skill... But I haven't. When I beat that guy in that duel... I don't know what came over me, but I wasn't myself. And even since then, I've lost all my duels..."_

_Then he reared his head up, so much so that he was now looking Baken directly in the eyes. His eyes were teary and gleaming, but the look of determination was ever present._

_"So I made myself a challenge. I'll fix my deck up, brush up on some dueling strategies, hone in and refine my skills... But I have to win my next duel. I told myself that if I lose my next duel, no matter who my opponent is, that I would leave this Academy and give up dueling..."_

Baken did not let his mind recall the events that proceeded after that. He was storming down the hallway, walking as hard as he could in a vain attempt to take his mind off the meeting.

He needed to find a solution. He needed to to get in touch with Kesado...

* * *

Nazonei smiled happily as she watched her brother visibly recoil as she added the chosen card to her hand.

"Looks like you know exactly what card I chose? Too bad I will be able to use it more effectively than you. You should work on that" the young girl chimed, cheeky smile still intact.

Nizone's face turned to a dark red color, his anger building up. _'You think you're so good huh Nazonei? Well go ahead and attack, then _you_'ll fall into _my _trap!'_

Nazonei's pale eyes stared at the spell card for several moments, a look of wonder, if anything, apparent on her face.

Then, she quickly dismissed the card, returning her attention to what was on the field; a cheeky smile once again, much to her brother's annoyance.

"I think I'll just have my Zephyr attack your defending monster!"

As heavily armored warrior rushed towards the face down card, Keiko stared in disbelief, an irked appearance on her face.

_'Dumb. That boy obviously has something planned...'_ Keiko briefly halted her thoughts as the brushed a few strands of hair out of her face. Her dark hair fell down to slightly below her shoulder, her hazel colored eyes glowering at the sister sibling._ 'Or maybe she only wishes to bait him...'_

The armored warrior slung his sword down, slicing through the face down monster with ease. The image of a green feathered warlock was seen briefly before bursting into a shower of pixels.

Nizone grinned as he watched his monster being destroyed. "Sorry sis, but that was Featherizer that you destroyed!"

For a moment, Nazonei looked taken aback. Judging by the expression on her face, it was clear that she was not expecting _that _to her brother's set monster.

"My apologies brother. I meant to bait out your plan, I had not realized you'd added Gemini monsters into your deck."

Nizone's smirk hardened, shaping into a full grin. I added a couple of these guys a couple days ago. After last Friday, I decided to up my deck so I went to the card shop. These guys were perfect for me since they are Warriors inhabited by fire, yeah!"

The blonde smiled at her brother. _'Well maybe you have gotten better. This might be fun!'_

**And that's the end of the chapter. Took a long time to update, right? Just been very busy with school and colleges, and it was Homecoming week last week. Go**

* * *

**figure. Anyway, hopefully next chapter will be out by the end of next week, then I'll be back on my regular schedule.**

**Nizone: Hey, you didn't even talk about me! Anyway, watch me mop the floor with my sister next chapter!**

**Misui: Good luck with that...**

******And there is the end to chapter 8. As always, feedback is greatly appreciated. I look forward to hearing what you have to say, and constructive criticism is always welcomed.**

**This is Rizengan01 signing out**


	9. Elements Clash! Pt 2

_**Author's Notes**_**: Well, I don't have too much to say, though hopefully I will be able to update much faster now that I have more free time. Anyway, last time, Nizone got into a heated confrontation with his sister and decided to settle the only way they know how, with a duel!**

**Update:**

**As of August 2nd, 2012 this chapter has been edited. Hopefully it'll be more enjoyable this way**

_**Spirits UnBound!**_

_**Elements Clash! pt. 2**_

* * *

Noting, the change in his sister's attitude, Nizone grinned zealously as he prepared to draw from his deck. Even though he was facing down her 2000 atk point Chrome Zephyr, and was aided by nothing more than a single face down, the boy seemed totally confident.

"Since it is now you end phase, I will activate my trap card, Call of The Haunted, to revive the Phoenix Gearfried in my graveyard!" then a card slid out if his graveyard slot, Nizone quickly placed it on his duel disk.

A moment later, a new monster appeared on the field. It was a large warrior it slid white armor with vibrant red and yellow highlights. The warrior's helmet was elongated, hanging down to his lower back. His majestic amber broadsword was slung over his shoulder as if it were light as a feather (2800/2200).

Nazonei stared at the opposing monster with a complex look of fear and amazement. So long as she'd been dueling her brother, he had never been able to pull off such an effective maneuver.

After recollecting her thoughts, she smiled at her brother.

Nizone, noticing the smile, decided to squash any form of comfort Nazonei may have been experiencing.

"As you may already know, my monster is a Gemini, which means that it is treated as a normal monster. Now by relinquishing my normal summon for this turn, I can Second Summon my monster, behold!"

As the brunette finished his statement, Gearfried lifted his sword high, and plunged it deep into the ground beneath his feet. The force of the stab release a fiery energy that engulfed Gearfried, making him seem more majestic and powerful.

The crowd gazed at the impressive monster much the same Nazonei had been only moments earlier.

Then Nizone gave his sister another cocky grin. "The two major Gemini monsters in my deck, this guy here" he pointed in front of him, indicating his Phoenix warrior, "...and Evocator Chevalier (1900/900). These are both FIRE type warriors, so it's easy to understand why they're in my deck. But that ain't the only reason; both of the monsters' effects depend highly upon my equip spells..."

The boy gave a pause so his sister could catch onto what he was getting at. But he knew she was highly intelligent in the game of Duel Monsters, so it wasn't a very long pause. "Because my deck has harnessed the power of Rasengan, it holds many equip spells, adding a large fuel to my monsters' fire, if you will"

At hearing the boys pun, Keiko sighed outwardly, _'why was such a prestigious academy filled with such corny people?'_

Nizone scratched the back of his head in slight embarrassment, red tinted cheeks making it obvious he heard the dark haired girl's audible sigh.

"Well, at any rate, I'll have my Phoenix Gearfried destroy Chrome Zephyr with Flaming Piston Strike!"

The large knight pointed its sword directly at the obsidian opponent; the blade dancing with swirls of flame surrounding it. In one swift motion, the Knight shot forward, piercing Chrome Zephyr, causing it to shatter in a burst of pixels.

Nizone's grin widened as he watched his sister's life points dropped to nearly half of what they'd started as (2400).

"Now I control the strongest monster on the field sister" Nizone chimed malevolently as he held up another card, being the one he'd drawn for the turn.

Nazonei stared at the green paper card the boy held in his hand, recoiling slightly as she took note of widely popular spell card.

"Now I'll use the spell card Card Destruction! Now we send our entire hand to the graveyard and draw an equal amount" as the boy finished his instructions, he slid his hand into the graveyard pile. The he ripped the top three cards off of his deck, replenishing his hand.

Nazonei surveyed her brother with her pale pearl colored eyes as he drew from his deck. Judging by the fluid way he'd done so, she was pretty sure he wanted more than to just gather a new hand. '_He wanted one of the cards he'd been holding previously to be sent to the grave.'_

The strawberry blond smiled boldly at her brother as she mimicked his actions of discarding her hand, before drawing four cards of her own.

"You've gotten better Zoo-Zoo; you made me get rid of the equip card I added to my hand, _and _sent whatever card you wanted to the graveyard. Bravo!"

Nizone just continued to grin at his sister, almost as if he hadn't heard the annoying pet name she addressed him as. "Yep, now that your Rasengan is in the grave, there isn't much I need to worry abo..."

But before the elder twin could finish his statement, Nazonei retorted, bluntly, "That card was not my Rasengan."

The brunette stood there, with a dumbfounded expression on his face, apparently waiting for an explanation.

"Before I reveal what card that actually was, I would like to inform you that one of the cards that was sent to the graveyard was my Badger-Mole Technician (800/500), and when it is sent to the grave, I can take an equip spell and add it to my hand" then the card ejected from her duel disk, Nazonei caught it expertly.

"The card was Medal of Honor".

Nizone stared at his sister perplexedly. He too had a copy of Medal of Honor in his deck, so he knew of its effect.

"If you would've equipped that to Chrome Zephyr, then you would have been allowed to draw a card after every time it destroyed a monster in battle. That means you would've gained a card from destroying my Featherizer. So why didn't you..."

Nazonei just smiled at her brother as she pulled the top card off of her deck, signifying the start of her turn.

"Don't stress yourself Zoo-Zoo, the only reason I did not use Medal of Honor last turn, was so that I would still have it when I actually needed..." she stated cheerfully, even as her pearl white eyes locked on to one of the cards she held in her hand. "Like right now!"

She quickly slammed the card onto her duel disk, causing a new monster to appear in a burst of light. The monster that appeared was small, very small. It appeared to be a small pink-skinned child wearing scant battle armor, and also covered in some cerulean blue animal pelt. Upon closer inspection, the animal vaguely resembled an over-sized hedgehog.

"Meet my Chibi Knight (700/700)!"

After taking a minute to register the monster's appearance and stats, Nizone burst into an uproar of laughter.

"Even with Medal of Honor, how is that thing supposed to stand up to my almighty Gearfried?" even as said words left the boy's mouth, his heavily armored monster pointed its massive blade at the Chibi Warrior and scuffed, giving the feeling of great disgust.

Chibi Warrior began to shake angrily, causing Nizone (and select few onlookers) to laugh even harder.

"Don't underestimate my monster, dear brother. I would not have added it into my deck if it were unsuitable" this statement hushed her brother. His face suddenly hardened in anticipation.

"You see, when Chibi Knight is given an equip spell, he can return one card on the field to the owner's hand!"

The young knight warrior held its head up high, a militaristic dog-tag appeared around its neck shortly after. Then the monster began to glow a radiating yellow aura, much to Nizone's consternation. Before the brunette had time to speak up, the small warrior blasted the giant fire-based knight, ridding it of the field.

But even as the large knight left the field, another, albeit smaller, flaming knight appeared. This one was less armored, but seemed more in tune with its affinity towards fire.

Nizone began a slight cackle, even as his strawberry blond twin gave a boding look of surprise.

"Sorry Sis, but by playing that equip card, you activated my Gearfried's special ability. It can you be activated when you play a spell card," he shoved his forefinger forward, directing his attention to the Medal of Honor around the Chibi monster's neck. "I can then bring back a Gemini monster. It was a card I sent to the graveyard by Card Destruction, welcome my Evocator Chevalier (1900/900)!"

But even as her brother's cackling increased in volume, Nazonei kept up a calm, ever-present smile. "Zoo-Zoo, don't you think I would know you a little better than that? I was prepared..."

Without another word, the Obelisk blue girl slammed one final card onto her duel disk. Moments later, the Chibi Knight made a few hand movements, and when it was finished, it was wielding a familiar mass of spiraling energy.

The equip spell Rasengan gives my monster the ability to destroy any monster it attacks in battle without applying damage calculations."

The brunette visibly cringed, his cerulean eyes plastered to the monster, who only moments ago, he made fun of.

"But that isn't the reason you played that card..." Nazonei smiled in reply to her brother's statement. "Nope, now that my monster has gained another equip spell, I can also return your Chevalier to your hand" and like before, the small Chibi monster radiated a magnificent golden glow before releasing it, causing the opposing fire warrior to leave the field.

Then the small Chibi Knight darted towards Nizone at speaks that far exceeded most anyone's expectations. The short monster shoved the spiraling mass of energy deep into its adversary's gut, causing his life points to drop to an even 2500. Nazonei smiled with joy as she set one last card, signaling the end of her turn.

Nizone, floored by the previous direct attack, took a moment to regain his thoughts, before reposing himself to an upright position.

Keiko sneered at the boy as she brushed aside a strand of stray hair from her face. _'How humbling. To have lost control of the duel to a weaker monster simply because of your own feeling of pseudo-superiority! Any one of the half-whit duelists out here could tell that your sister is the better duelist, and yet you still have the audacity to assume that you could overpower her. Pathetic...'_

Nizone bit his lip as he drew from his deck. After staring at the five cards in his hand, he decided on the move he would make.

"I'll start off this turn by playing the spell card Double Summon, and by now having two normal summons for the turn, I'll bring out Evocator Chevalier, and Second Summon him!" the orange clad warrior once again graced the field, but now he was brimming with fire, almost to the point that it overtook his entire body.

Nizone rubbed under his nose with his prone forefinger, a slight grin on his face as he did so. "Now I have access to my monster's special power, which means I can send any equip card on my field to the graveyard to destroy any other card on the field!"

The strawberry blond reeled once she heard this tidbit of information. She flinched even more once she noticed that her brother was holding up two cards, prepared to place them on his duel disk.

"Now I play my Molten Destruction field spell! All FIRE monsters gain 500 atk points at the cost of 400 defense points" and as was said, an impressively large, active volcano erupted from the ground, spurting magma across the field. Chevalier seemed to react to this new setting, flexing experimentally as his atk points jumped to 2400.

Then the brunette slammed the next card on to his duel disk. In no time at all, his flaming warrior widened its palm as a familiar spiraling mass of energy appeared in its hand.

Nazonei smiled once more. "You're going to send your Rasengan to the graveyard to destroy my Chibi Knight, then attack me directly and win the duel..."

Nizone's smirk was all the answer she needed. As the boy took the spell card and slid it into his graveyard pile, Evocator Chevalier shot the Rasengan at the small knight.

A small, barely visible small could (or maybe couldn't) be seen upon Nazonei's visage. She reacted instantly, depressing a button on her duel disk, and causing her face down trap to spring forward.

Instantly the Chibi Knight reacted. Much like its larger opponent, the small monster shot its Rasengan forward. The two swirling balls clashed in an amazing showcase light-show. When the lights died down, Chevalier's Rasengan was no where in sight, but Chibi Knight's blast was still careening forward. It slammed into the large fire warrior with amazing force, destroying it instantly.

Nizone looked mortified. His expression betrayed an array of emotions: confusion, dread, shock, wonder. But above all, his betrayed a sense of irritation.

"What... What did... What did you do?"

Nazonei merely flashed him an innocent smile, even as she placed her copy of the now famous Rasengan into her graveyard slot.

"Sorry Zoo-Zoo, but I activated my face down Rasen-Grenade counter trap. As you already know, it allows me to send one face up 'Rasengan' on my field to the graveyard to destroy one of your monsters. It appears as though my trap card has bested your monster, dear brother".

Nizone's expression transformed into a much more sinister one. He leered at his sister with clenched fists gritted teeth, waves of anger released from his person.

He was obviously mad. Mad that he was once again opened for a direct attack... Mad that his monster had once again been destroyed... Mad that there was no other move he could make... But more than anything, he was mad that he had once again been bested by Nazonei, his younger sister.

Wordlessly, much to the contradiction of the crowds uproar, he set a card face down, signaling the end of his turn.

The Obelisk blue female drew with grand flourish, slightly replenishing her hand count.

"Sorry brother, but the next card I play shall end this duel. It is the spell card Wind-Storm Mirage, and by its activation, I can select one WIND type monster in my graveyard and special summon to my field. As a side-effect, all other existing spell and trap cards are destroyed"

And as she finished her explanation, a forceful wind blew across the field, shattering the boy's face down Mirror Force trap card, and blowing away the large volcano.

When the winds subsided, Chrome Zephyr was now standing beside Chibi Knight, his bastard sword slung over his shoulder, much like before.

Nizone stared on with the same resentful expression, the only change was his deeper scowl.

Without hesitation, the strawberry blond duelist command her monsters to attack...

Things seemed to go by in slow motion; the monster charged at Nizone, slowly and silently. The impact was great, and with one thunderous explosion, Nizone's life points dropped to 0, his cry reverberating throughout the island.

* * *

He was tired. He was out of breath. His body ached in pain from the time he'd spent running. Even now, he stood hunched over, hands on his knees, hyperventilating excessively, and trying to regain his composure. He needed a still breath and cool composure for what he was about to do.

He ran all the way from the Slifer Red dorms to where we was now, an elapsed time of some 20 minutes straight. Now he was in this facility, in a, rather empty, hallway, right near to the wall.

Directly in front of him was door; Room #307, on the third floor of the Obelisk Blue dormitory. Behind that door was the man that he ran so far to see, The Kaiser of Duel Academy, Hinomurei Kesado...

* * *

******And there is the end to chapter 9. As always, feedback is greatly appreciated. I look forward to hearing what you have to say, and constructive criticism is always welcomed.**

**This is Rizengan 01 signing out**


	10. Elements Clash! Pt 3

**Author's Note: Hello faithful viewers, welcome to the next chapter of the story! Well it's Christmas, so I decided to go ahead and post a chapter for all you awesome people out there! There's not really much to say though... This chapter is pretty much just a taste of the training Jin receives from Kesado. It's a regular match designed to help Jin learn how to face a defensive duelist. The only stipulation is that Kesado can not declare an attack with his Ghost monsters…**

_**Spirits UnBound**_

**Jin's Training: a Tough Regiment**

**

* * *

**

Jin and Kesado were now facing each other, duel disks active; they were in a duel.

At first glance, it would appear that Jin was in the lead. While Kesado had no monsters on the field, one face down card, and only one card in his hand, Jin had the powerful Swordsman of Twilight at his disposal.

It did not appear to be much, a young man with shoulder length pale blue hair, and vibrant blue-green eyes. He wore a black undershirt overshadowed by the unzipped sleeveless yellow over shirt. His baggy blue jeans and tennis shoes completed his outfit.

In his right hand was a most unique blade. The entirety of the blade was designed to look like a dark purple bat wing, while the center of the handle beheld what appeared to be a monstrous blue eye. This pattern was also followed on the hilt of the blade; both sides a dark demonic wing.

The young man spun his sword expertly as his attack points settled at 2800 (Def: 2100).

Jin grinned lightly as he stared as his opponent. "Now that my Swordsman of Twilight is equipped with Soul Eater, I'm all but guaranteed to win this duel!"

"Another lesson Jin: don't take your opponent so lightly. Even a single card can change the entire flow of a duel. For instance…"

Kesado let his words drift away as he depressed a button on his duel disk. Soon after, his face down card flipped face up.

It was a trap card; its image depicted a haunted graveyard. Tombstones could be seen sparsely spread around the area.

"By activating my Call of the Haunted, I can return my Friendly Ghost to the field!"

Suddenly, a ghoulish silhouette rose from the ground, slowly reforming in front of Kesado, it revealed to be a ghost the shape of a large ball. Its friendly face betrayed the intensity of the duel (0/0).

Jin merely scuffed at the new monster. "I took down that monster once, I can do it again".

A slight smirk overtook the Kaiser's visage. "At least you've overcome that cowardly attitude of yours… But this monster cannot be selected as an attack target, which means that you won't be winning the duel this turn"

Jin took this time to observe his three card hand._ 'Knowing Kesado, he'll be able to gain the lead on his next turn' _then he cast a glance as his only monster. _'But with my Swordsman of Twilight on the field, I've got some pretty good protection…'_

"I'll set one card face down to end my turn."

Kesado forcefully drew the top card of his deck, slightly replenishing his hand size. As he stared at the drawn card, his dark violet eyes began to glow vibrantly.

He promptly slammed the drawn card onto his disk, causing Jin to slightly waver. "I activate the continuous spell card Grave-Cycling!"

The Slifer red duelist stared on with a look of confusion plastered on his face. "So what does that card do exactly?"

"While it's face-up on the field, any sacrifices can be conducted through the cards in our graveyards."

"So you mean you can remove cards in your graveyard from play to tribute summon a powerful monster?"

"No, not quite… This card effect does not apply to regular tribute summoning. Although it would work for fusion, special, and even ritual summoning…"

"Then what are you about to do?"

Kesado quickly held up the last card in his hand. As Jin took note of what card it was, he outwardly gasped.

"Normally I would need to discard a card from my to activate Lightning Vortex, but now I can just as easily remove a card in my graveyard from play" and as he placed the chosen card in his back pocket, a powerful bolt of lightning came crashing down on Swordsman of Twilight.

Jin acted quickly, depressing a button on his own duel disk. The Swordsman of Twilight acted in kind, erecting a shield of darkness. The lightning crashed into the shield, creating a large wave of smoke.

Then the Slifer Red duelist turned his attention to the Kaiser. "My apologies Kesado, but my Swordsman does have a special ability, one that keeps him from being destroyed so long as he drops his Atk Points by 700 for the remainder of the turn.

And just like Jin stated, when the smoke cleared out, the Swordsman still stood, albeit weakly (2100).

Kesado merely nodded his head. "I figured you had some way of protecting your monster"

"Huh? Then why did you play that spell card if you knew it wasn't going to work?"

"For two reasons actually. First off, I had to determine your monster's ability, which I did. And second, the monster I removed from play is Mathematics Scholar, and when he's removed from the graveyard by any means, I may draw two cards."

As Jin watched Kesado draw, he felt a well of impression build up in his chest. _'That was a good move; I need to employ that level of strategic playing…'_

"You found out my Swordsman's ability, but there's more to it than that. And his sword also has some tricks up its sleeves!"

"I'm curious to see what else you hold in store. For now, I'll just end my turn by switching my Friendly Ghost to defense mode.

As Kesado's turn came to an end, the small round ghost crossed its arms defensively.

Jin was quick to draw his next card, starting his turn once more.

The Swordsman of Twilight quickly swung his blade expertly. Feeling rejuvenated, he gave a cocky smirk as his Atk points increased, once again resting at a powerful 2800.

Jin's eyes scanned over his hand, looking for any subtle combination that would help him win this duel. After a moment or two, his eyes shot open with surprise, only to return to normal a moment later. But even so, Kesado picked up on the subtle act.

"Before I start this turn, I just need to thank you."

"Thank me for what?" Kesado asked perplexedly.

"For playing that Grave Cycling! Now I can activate Swordsman of Twilight's other effect, by discarding one card from my hand, I can negate the effect of one card on the field." Then Jin took a single card from his graveyard pile, and, like Kesado before him, placed it in his pocket. "Go, Dark Firaga!"

The Swordsman built up a powerful concentration of darkness in the palm of his hand. As he continued to channel his dark energy into his hand, purple sparks began to crackle around him. As the powerful energy reached its peak, the Swordsman fired it off at the opposing ghost.

The blast stunned the monster, but did not kill it. As it began to hyperventilate, the ghost also lost its transparency, becoming a solid figure.

Kesado watched on with an absence of any emotional expression.

"Now that your monster is vulnerable, I'll take this opportunity to destroy it!"

The Swordsman ran up to the Friendly Ghost at an incredible speed; even Kesado could not keep track of its incredibly fast movements.

Once the Swordsman was on the Ghost's person, he made two quick swipes, an X like mark appeared over the ghost before it burst into a shower of pixels.

"And now Soul Eater's effect activates. Besides giving my monster 700 Atk points, it also has another effect. Now that it has destroyed a monster, it places a Darkness Counter on Twilight Swordsman" a second after the young boy's explanation, a current of darkness began to ripple around the young blue haired duel monster.

"Once he gains 3 counters, he'll unleash his ultimate power!"

Kesado drew to start his turn. "Well if he can become that powerful, then I guess I should just take him out before he can reach that power" Then he placed a card on his duel disk.

"I'll start my turn by summoning Frigid Ice Capron." The monster that appeared was awkward, to say the least. It was made purely out of ice, but some parts where some parts were hard and rigid, others were clean and smooth. The head of a creature looked most akin to an alligator, while the body looked like that of a centaur. It roared loud as its stats were displayed (1600/1800).

Jin looked dumbfounded. "Umm, what use does that creature have? It's far weaker than my own. And for that matter, why is it in a ghost deck like yours?"

Kesado closed his eyes and crossed his arms. "This may not apply to you, but it is my belief that any deck can use improvements. More to the point, any archetype can be improved by cards that aren't necessarily a part of that archetype. There have been many cases were archetype decks work well with other cards. Even the Crystal Beasts have the ability to supplement the Sacred Beast Hamon. Or even on the same basis of how Nizone's Rasengan-Fire based cards work well with Gemini monsters."

Then he pointed his forefinger, indicating his own deck. "Even my Ghost oriented deck is no different. Because of its high dependence on graveyard accessibility, there are plenty of non-Ghost cards that fit perfectly in my deck."

Then he turned his attention to his newly summoned creature. "This monster, my Frigid Ice Capon's ability allows me to send a maximum of three cards on the top of my deck to decrease your monster's Atk and Def points by 400x the number of cards discarded."

Jin's eyes shot opened in surprise.

"But then our monsters will both have equal Atk points…"

Kesado merely smirked, even as he discarded the top 3 cards from his deck. Then his hulking Ice monster began to exhale powerfully. Before long, the Swordsman of Twilight was nearly frozen, snow and ice covered all around his clothes. He exhaled in pain as his attack points dropped to 1600.

"Now my Capron, attack that Swordsman with Doomsday Blizzard!"

"Swordsman of Twilight, counter with your Dark Aura!"

As the two monster began to charge one another in a magnificent display of power, the two duelist began to converse. Kesado was the first to speak.

"When my Frigid Ice monster is destroyed, I must discard the top three cards from my deck" he said as slid those three cards into his graveyard. "And because they're equal in strength, your monster will also be destroyed.

But as Kesado watched the abomination duel the opposing Swordsman, he received his own surprise.

The swordsman dodged a punch by the Ice monster before decapitating it. As the monster's severed head fell on the floor, it and the monster's body exploded into a shower of golden pixels. The Swordsman stood triumphantly as another Darkness Counter emanated around his being.

"Looks like I outmaneuvered you Kesado" Jin retorted, a smirk present on his visage. Kesado became all the more baffled as his life points fell to a scant 300.

"Before your monster destroyed mine, I discarded Honest, which caused my monster's attack points to increase by 1600!"

"Well done Jin. I'll simply set one card face down and end my turn."

With a new display of triumph, Jin ripped the top card off his deck. "Hah, this duel is over! I play the spell card Ojama Trio! Now I get to place 3 Ojama Tokens on your field" and much like the Slifer stated, three ugly creatures appeared before Kesado; one green, one blue, and one yellow (0/1000).

"Hm, I didn't expect you to have that card in your deck" was all Kesado said as he stared on in his usual nonchalant manner.

"Well, it goes back to what you were saying. My deck is a cross between a LIGHT deck and a DARK deck, so having these three LIGHT monsters could provide some elemental fodder if I ever need it. Not to mention they make great rag-dolls for my Swordsman monsters."

"Impressive"

"Thanks. But now it's high time I ended this. Swordsman of Twilight, take out that yellow Ojama Token and finish this duel!"

Much like last time, the Swordsman charged at the small semi-naked being, appeared directly in front of it in a fraction of a second. With one quick slice, the little yellow monster was easily destroyed.

"Now since an Ojama Token has been destroyed, you take 300 points of damage!"

But as the smoke settled, Kesado's monsters were still in tact, his life points raised slightly to a still low 600.

"This duel isn't over yet. I activated my face down Shock Absorber trap card to increase my life points by the amount I would've lost during this turn."

Jin cringed as he tightened his fists into a ball. _'Damn, that means Kesado has another turn to mess everything up…' _"Well at any rate, my monster now has 3 Darkness Counters, so he can transform!"

As the Swordsman of Twilight gained his third and final counter, he became engulfed in darkness. A large sphere of purple and black surrounded him. It began spinning rapidly, releasing waves of darkness.

When if finally vanished, the Swordsman stood there, ripples of dark aura radiating off of his person. His old clothes were gone, replace by what could only be described as a very diabolical muscle suit. In the center of his chest was the insignia of a black heart. There was also a white skirt like material around his waste that hung down to his knees. As the finishing touch, a black cloak was tied around his waste, partially covering the white material.

"Meet Riku, Vessel of Darkness (3000/2800)."

As Kesado drew, he smirked at the newly summoned monster. "That's a nice monster, too bad I must rid the field of it. By activating my Mystic Box spell card, I can destroy your monster and return one of these Tokens to your field!"

Two boxes promptly erected from the ground, surrounding both Dark Riku and the Black Ojama token. They quickly closed, trapping the selected monsters inside. Suddenly, a barrage of knives slammed into the box that encased the Dark warrior. As both boxes opened, Ojama Green was now in the opposing box while his original box was empty. But, much to Kesado's chagrin, Dark Riku also came out of the box, completely unharmed.

"Sorry to disappoint, but Riku cannot be destroyed by card effect.

"Well, if that's the case, then I'll set one monster face down and end my turn."

Jin ripped the top card off his deck, only giving it a mere glance returning his attention to the battlefield. "My Vessel of Darkness has several effects. He cannot be destroyed by card effects, removes from play every monster that he destroys, can negate an attack on him and decrease the Atk and of the attacking monster by 1000 by removing a DARK monster from my grave, and inflicts 1000 points of damage to you every time he destroys a LIGHT monster."

Kesado visibly frowned. "This Ojama monster is a LIGHT attribute, and most of your monsters are DARK attributes. That monster is pretty dangerous."

"But that's not all; upon his summoning, he is also equipped with a Keyblade from my deck or graveyard."

As Riku held out his hand, a new sword appeared in it. It was also shaped like a key, but this one was even darker than the last. It was large, black, and more powerful than the before (3800/2800).

"This is the Oblivion and it powers up my monster by 800 Atk points. As an added bonus, the equipped monster also gains the ability to do battle with all of your monster at once!"

The cloak around the monster's waist transformed into vague, dark shadowy wings on Riku's back. In the blink of an eye, he took flight, destroying both of Kesado's monsters with one swipe of his mighty blade.

Jin watched on with baited breath, waiting for Kesado's life points to drop to 0 so that he would be able to celebrate his victory.

It never did.

Kesado held up a card, a monster card. _'Phantom Shieldron…_' "By removing it from play, I take no damage this turn."

Jin snarled in angry. "Jeez Kesado, why don't you just roll over already?" The emerald eyed Slifer set one card face down as he ended his turn. Secretly he was enjoying himself, but at the same time, he was hoping that his next opponent wouldn't be nearly this difficult to beat.

Kesado silently drew his next card. "Well, I think I should take the offensive now. I'll use the magic of Card of Sanctity" Jin nodded in understanding. With no wasted words, both duelists drew from their decks until they each held 6 cards.

"Now I'll play my Book of Life. I can return my Living Cannon (0/0) to the field and remove your Solstice of Dark Magician (2500/2100) in your graveyard from play."

Then a cannon appeared on Kesado's monster zone. It was made of pure rotten flesh, and random severed limbs. Jin frowned. _'He wouldn't have brought that monster back unless he had some usefulness with it.'_

"This next move is a little bit tricky, so try to keep up" the purple haired Kaiser teased, much to Jin's chagrin.

Now by the effect of my Cannon, I can discard my IV 4 Petrified Spirit (0/1500) from my hand to the graveyard to inflict upon you 800 points of damage!"

Then the spirit of a young woman appeared. She walked across the field awkwardly, almost as if she were trapped in a surreal dream- or nightmare. But before long, she was sucked into the Living Cannon, converted into a ball of pure energy, and the fired at Jin.

The young Slifer was knocked over by the force of the blow. (LP: 1600)

As he began to stand up, he winced in pain. "Damn… Kesado, when you said you wouldn't be attacking me, I didn't expect to take this much damage!"

Kesado stared on, slight grin still apparent on his face. He crossed his arms condescendingly. "Jin, don't tell me _that_ was enough to rattle your nerves?"

"Of course not… But you said that this duel would teach me to handle a defensive opponent, so why do I have to put up with that stinking cannon?"

"It's a part of the game. You just have to learn to deal with it. As for my next move, when Petrified Spirit is sent to the graveyard outside of battle, I'm allowed to remove her from play to special summon one monster from my graveyard to the field in Atk position!"

Then the familiar form of Koukoshen Ghost Hunter appeared on the field as Kesado placed the Spirit card in his back pocket (900/500).

"But she won't be staying for long. I sacrifice both my monsters to summon Malevolent Mech: Shokka"

In a blinding burst of light, a new monster graced the field. It was by far the most gargantuan monster to have been summoned during the entirety of the duel. It was large enough so that Kesado could have fitted atop the creatures head. It appeared to be a long, thin, winged dragon. But aside from its almost mechanical frame, it also had decayed purplish skin that nearly betrayed it beauty (2900/0).

"That thing seems pretty beastly, but it doesn't have the strength necessary to fend off my Vessel of Darkness."

"He may not be powerful enough now, but don't think that I am finished; I still have two more moves to complete before I end my turn. First, my monster gains the ability of any Zombie monster that was used as a tribute to summon it. That means he now has the same effect as Living Cannon!"

Without stating his next move, Kesado discarded the level 4 Ghastly Reaper to the graveyard to hit Jin with an additional 800 points. And like before, the Reaper monster was inhaled by Shokka before being spat at Jin, knocking the boy down once more, and whittling his life points to a measly 800.

Kesado chuckled. "On my next turn, I'll be able to discard one last card and end this duel."

That won't happen, I'll destroy that monster before you get the chance!"

Kesado stared on impassively for a moment. "Oh, but before I end my turn, I still have my second move to contend with. Because this monster's type is both Zombie and Dragon, I can equip it with Jack Viper, Shadow of Doom!"

Jin gasped as he heard the name of that monster. _'No…'_

Then, a new monster rose from the ground. It appeared to be the ghost of an elongated dragon, its scaled transformed into a purple mist covering its skeletal form. Its mouth filled with razor sharp teeth that threatened to devour anything in its path. Shokka paled in comparison to this new beast. It gave the feel that it was the most powerful monster on the field.

Then the monster wrapped itself around Shokka, almost become an outer aura for the Dragonic beast (3900/0).

"That resolves the end of my turn."

Jin weakly drew his next card before returning his attention to the hulking monster that opposed him. The Viper stared back at the young boy through malicious red eyes, venom oozing from its mouth as it did so.

Even the Vessel of Darkness visibly flinched as he watched the dripping acid melt away as the arena floor, a foul stench filling the air.

Jin clinched his fist. _'As long as Shokka has the Shadow of Doom protecting him, then I'm in trouble. And if I do manage to destroy it, then Jack Viper will just take to the field… Sorry Riku, but I have no choice'_

"I'll activate my monster's final effect, go Dark Blitz!"

As the command was given, a look of shock surged through the face of the Vessel of Darkness. But then the monster hardened his expression and nodded in understanding. He thrust his Oblivion Keyblade in the air as a bolt of purple lightning came crashing down.

In no time at all, the monster's entire being was engulfed. But rather than being destroyed, it seemed to strengthen the dark aura that surrounded the monster. His cloak once again turned into vague black wings as he took to the sky.

After several second of rapid ascension, the demonic boy can crashing down, far faster and more forceful than the lightning that empowered him. As he landed in the center of the dueling field, the shock waves that were emitted were forceful enough to destroy every other monster on the field.

"By sacrificing half my life points (400) along with my monster, Riku can destroy every monster on the field. Plus, since my Swordsman of Twilight was in the graveyard, I can summon him to the field, though he gains no weapon, and cannot attack for the next 3 turns". Even so, the blue haired boy stood on the field, panting heavily. But now, he wore the same unzipped sleeveless shirt and baggy jeans as before (2100/2100).

But as the smoke settled, Jack Viper was still present on the field, though now he was no longer bound to a host. He roared with power, almost as if he were celebrating his freedom (4000/0).

"As you already know, when the host is destroyed, I can place my Shadow of Doom onto the monster card zone instead of sending him to the graveyard."

"Yeah… I know…" Jin assured.

"But I was prepared for that as well" Jin once again assured. Then he pulled a card from his hand before placing it on the duel disk.

"Now I activate my Shining Fortitude spell card. By sacrificing my battle phase this turn, I can destroy one monster on your field, so long as I have a LIGHT monster present!"

Kesado visibly frowned, and to no wonder, he didn't even have time to enjoy his most powerful monster's appearance.

Then the Swordsman of Twilight dashed at the behemoth of a monster, armed with nothing more than his own hands. As he charged forward, a faint white light began to radiate off him. He jumped high into the air, reaching maximum height directly in front of the Viper's face. _"I'm more than just darkness!" _he roared as he drove his fist into the ghastly monster's snout. In a brilliant shower of pixels, the Viper was destroyed, and the Swordsman of Twilight returned to his rightful spot on the field.

Jin slid one last card into his graveyard to end his turn.

Kesado snatched the top card off his deck before glancing at it. Then, in a burst of light, both Ghastly Reaper and Petrified spirit appeared on the field, as per the effect of the Living Cannon.

A small smile crossed Kesado's face, but only for a moment. It passed so quickly that Jin didn't even notice.

"Not much of a move this turn. I'll switch my monsters to defense mode and set one face down card. Turn end." Petrified Spirit curled up into the fetal position while Ghastly Reaper brought his scythe across his chest.

Even as he drew his next card, Jin stared at Kesado's field perplexedly. 'That's weird. I was sure that at the least he was going to equip his Reaper to that Petrified Spirit. Now I don't know what he's planning'

Amidst the confusion, Jin decided that it was a dead waste trying to figure out any of Kesado's moves. Instead, he opted for his own.

"I'll take this time to activate my face down quick play spell card Chain of Memories! This card allows me to summon a monster on my field based on what I already have. You see, I must have a level 7 or higher DARK or LIGHT monster in play. But since my Swordsman of Twilight meets both these needs, I can summon either a high level DARK or LIGHT monster from my deck. My choice: Swordsman of Light!"

Then in a brilliant burst of light, a new monster took to the field, standing next to the Swordsman of Twilight. Like the Twilight Swordsman, this monster seemed to be a young man of the same age. But his clothes and spiky brown consisted of darker colors, adding a sense of irony to the fact that he was the sworn wielder of the Light (2000/2000).

As he took to the field, he turned to Twilight, who also did so in kind. Both monsters nodded at each other, a grin on either one's face.

Then a beautiful white Keyblade appeared in the Light Swordsman's hands, raising his power to an impressive 2500. Even upon a mere glance, it was obvious that particular blade held sentimental value to both the Swordsmen.

"Like my Swordsman of Twilight, Light here is equipped with a Keyblade when he is summoned to the field. In this case, I choose the Oathkeeper."

Then Jin stared at the last few cards in his hand. He began to hyperventilate slightly as he took note of one of them. _'Eternal Session…? With this card I can end the duel'_

"I play the spell Card Eternal Session! It can only be activated if I have both Swordsman of Twilight and Swordsman of Light on the field. Now by returning them to my deck, I can rid the field of your monsters _and_ deal you 1000 points of damage!"

Both Swordsmen passed a nostalgic glance at the other before jumping into action. Twilight charged at the Spirit while Light approached the Reaper. In a fluent combination, inclusive of magical maneuvers unique only to these two, the Swordsmen ended the move by swapping Keyblades. Because Twilight was temporarily disarmed, Light gave him the Oathkeeper. Twilight then harnessed all of his energy to summon Way to Dawn, which he promptly tossed to Light. In a magnificent display of power, the two Keyblade wielders used the powers of their weapons to create a super devastating magnetic force that utterly obliterated the opposing monsters.

But before Kesado lost the small bit of life points he held, he depressed a button on his duel disk.

His trap card flipped face up, reveal a picture of what appeared to be a swirling ball in the cemetery.

"I chain my trap card, Cemetery Bomb, to your Eternal Session. Now you take damage equal to the amount of cards in your graveyard x100!"

In the blink of an eye, a swirling ball of energy appeared directly under Jin. As his monsters were finishing up their powerful Limit, the swirling ball exploded with tremendous force, cause a smoky uproar. As Jin was blown away, his life point counter dropped to 0, resulting in the disappearance the holograms.

Moments later, Kesado approached Jin. As he stood over the prone Slifer Red duelist, he gave a genuine smile. Then he leaned down to help the boy up.

"What… What happened…?"

"Nothing kid. You put up a nice duel, but in the end, I came out on top."

Jin slightly pouted at this. "No fair! I was going to end the duel with a spectacular finishing move! You can't just win with some lame Cemetery Bomb!"

Kesado merely smirked. "Kid, a duel doesn't depend on who has the best finisher. All that matters if you have what it takes to be victorious"

* * *

**Card of the Chapter: **

Swordsman of Twilight

DARK/LIGHT

Level 7

Warrior/Effect:

When this card is summoned, take Either 'Way to Dawn'

or 'Soul Eater' from your graveyard, deck ,Or hand, and

equip it to this face-Up monster. Once Per turn, you can

discard one card from your Hand to negate the effect of

one Monster on the field. If this card would be destroyed,

you can decrease its Atk points by 700 points to keep this

monster on the field. If this monster's Atk points drop to

zero by its own effect, then it is Destroyed.

(Atk: 2100/Def: 2100)

**Author's Note: Hey guys, hope you all enjoyed this chapter, it was really fun to write. Just so there is no confusion, this chapter started sometime in the middle of the duel. Jin was about to declare a direct attack to win the duel, but then Kesado activated his Call of the Haunted. I thought that the pace of this duel was really well done, but if I would've started at the beginning, then it would've taken like twice as long. Just to put things into perspective, the part of duel that I did show was about 10 turns. Now let's say both players had 12 different monsters in their graveyard. Well, it would've taken about 7 turns to summon all of them (including special summons), not to mention how ever many turns it would've taken for those cards to be destroyed. Think about it, Kesado and Jin were both playing good defense, and keeping their monsters safe. So now we're looking at a possible 10-14 more turns, or basically a chapter twice as long as it already is -_- I figured it would just be better to start late in the duel.**

**And on a side note, I initially planned to use this chapter to showcase Keiko's duel against Nazonei, but after reading one of my reviews (Hikari Hellion- was curious as to the types of decks Jin and Kesado use) I just had to write this! This chapter is for you Hikari xD!**

**But something interesting happened while I was planning this duel out. Kesado's deck has always been clear to me: a deck with a lot of Ghost monsters that are versatile, but focus mainly on graveyard stacking. But then when I got to Jin, it wasn't so cut and dry. When I originally began designing his deck, I mainly wanted to have it be split between random DARK monsters and random LIGHT monsters with Solstice of Dark Magician (OC card) being the corner stone. But then when I tried to write this duel the first time, Jin's cards were so random, it just didn't flow well. And after running through a few different deck archetypes, I figured that having a couple characters from the Kingdom Hearts series would really juice his deck up. After all, they do have Character that are DARK and others that are LIGHT. **

**Tell me what you guys think about his deck.**

**Tell me anything you guys have to say, be it constructive criticism, random flaming, or just a little bit of something you would like to see in future chapters. **

**Thanks guys, y'all are the best! PLEASE Read&Review in the Spirit of Christmas ! ! !**

**This is Rizengan01 signing out**


	11. Clash of The Titans!

**Author's note: Whoop! After not showing up for months, I have return, and better than ever! Sorry to all my faithful viewers, but I had to take some time to write out plot of the story. I knew how I wanted to go, but I just get getting so many ideas. It was hard to keep up with it all. So I decided to just completely rework the whole story, and frankly, I think it came out rather nicely. Thanks you guys for reading my story, and for being so patient with me, you guys rock and I hope you enjoy!**

_*Ryouu casually enters the room*_

**Ryouu: **Ya know Rizengan, your story has been pretty bland for the past couple chapters. Besides an unimpressive duel and giving me the ability to summon Raiku, you haven't done much.

**Me:** Ahh, (sobbing) It's not really that bad, is it?

_*Ryouu silently nods*_

**Me**: (after crying for several seconds) But all that stuff was necessary! I needed some way to express the tension between Nazonei and Nizone without making her seem like a complete stuck up snob, while also making Nizone the fan favorite!

**Ryouu**: Well I guess that makes sense… But their duel could've still been better. And then you have Jin's duel; why is he even in the story? His entire role seems pretty… filler-y…

**Me**: Filler-y? That's not even a real word… And what do you mean?

**Ryouu:** Hey, it is a real word! And I just mean that Jin seems pointless to the story, at least the way he is. Either he loses his next duel and is then out of the story, or he wins and then changes his attitude -_-

**Me:** And what's wrong with either of those?

**Ryouu:** Simple. If he loses, then he's out of the story and his role seems really short and basically pointless (like a filler -_-). Or he changes his attitude, which kinda makes it pointless for him to have been timid in the first place. It seems sorta lazy on your part, and is a little too reminiscent of Syrus.

**Me:** D,,,= But who said those were the only possibilities? What if he were to lose his duel, then leave the Academy holding a grudge? Who knows what he might do, or how that would affect the story?

**Ryouu**: That's not very convincing, though… I don't think you would've said that if it really was your plan. And besides, there's still the issue of Hakoda… You haven't really done much with him, except for having him creeping around.

**Me**: Haha, this is one I can defend against! Hakoda is REALLY important to this story, his vitality just happens a little later on. I'm giving him a small part right now, that much is true. But I do it mainly to keep him fresh in the reader's mind (and for few other reasons, hehehe)

**Ryouu**: *yawn* Fine, but then again, what's up with me and this whole 'Shadow Summoning Magic' stuff?

**Me:** Why do you have so many questions (glares at Ryouu with an annoyed expression)?

*Ryouu merely crosses his arms and shrugs*

**Me:** "Your powers will be better explained in the next few chapters, so be quiet! Now I think we've kept you guys waiting for long enough. So without further ado…"

**Ryouu:** Enjoy the show!

**Me:** Hey!

* * *

_**SPIRITS UNBOUND**_

**Ch. 11 Clash of The Titans!**

_TIME and time again, throughout the history of the entire species, humanity has fought in countless wars. Low and behold, not all of these wars have been fought over what you may think._

_As long as humanity has existed, there has also been a fascination with the unknown… With the supernatural._

_But through the progression of time, those that associated themselves with the Supernatural became outcast by those who didn't. 'If I can't see it, then it must not exist!'_

_A hatred for the supernatural-sensitive people grew in the hearts of those that weren't. A savage war resulted; one of the earliest wars in the history of the species._

_And when it was all over, the people with no spiritual sensitivity were the victors, decimating nearly all that were sensitive. _

_Hundreds, thousand, tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of years later, humanity is at the verge of another war; a war that may not only decide the fate of the human race, but of the entire planet. _

_But this oncoming war isn't known to a lot of humans, in fact, almost none of the population could foresee something so destructive happening in the near future. _

_But the few people that sense a disturbance in the natural order of the world, the few that will play the largest role in this war, are the same ones that were nearly wiped of long before._

_As a grand evil threatens to send the planet into total chaos, the only ones that can stop it are the descendants of a clan long forgotten, the people in touch with the spiritual, those that are sensitive to the supernatural…_

* * *

At a certain stadium, completely devout to dueling, the crowd erupted into frenzy of cheers as a duel proceeded down below.

Of the two contestants, one of them was a fairly old man, around 50. Judging by the large shine on the top of the man's head, it was safe to say that he was in a losing battle against male pattern baldness. But his mustache and extended beard more than made up for the hair loss. His high class business suit completed the ensemble.

He currently held one monster on his field; the beautiful pink form of Seiyaryu could be seen, enhanced by the power of the Axe of Despair it wielded within its beak (3500/2100).

Both the old man and his pink dragon were staring down his opponent.

He wore a white bandanna around his head that matched perfectly with his white muscle shirt and baggy black jeans. He also had on white shoes with black shoe laces and outside soles. Small folds of his distinctive purple hair could be seen hanging out of the bandana. He was Masuchi, the current Pro League champion.

"Sorry to say, but with no cards on the field, and only one in your hand, you stand no chance of toppling me and Seiyaryu!" The elder man taunted.

Masuchi merely smiled in response.

"Don't look so assured. With only 700 life points, my next attack will end this duel" the man further bragged, even as his life point counter registered its score (1500).

Masuchi ripped the top card off his deck before giving it a slight glance. "Ya know dude, just because you have a slight advantage, it doesn't mean you have this duel won" and as if to emphasize his point, Masuchi slammed down the card he'd been holding previously onto his duel disk.

The form of a rainbow shot from the sky. It landed onto the Champion's duel disk. The elder man stared on, a slight bead of sweat forming on his brow.

"Thanks to the destruction you've caused, I can use this spell card. It's called Destination Rainbow, and can only be activated if I have at least one of my Elemental Spirits in the grave!"

The beads of sweat on the elder man's brow began to increase in size and in number.

Then on the rainbow, four of the colors faded away, leaving only the green strip, the red strip, and the indigo strip remained.

"What is the meaning of this light show?"

Masuchi smirked as he faced his opponent. "My deck has 7 primary monsters. Each one represents an element. They are WIND, EARTH, FIRE, LIGHTNING, WATER, LIGHT, and DARK."

Then the champion whipped his head back. "This rainbow responds to these monsters. For each one in the grave, it creates a strand of color: WIND is green, ROCK is orange, FIRE is red, LIGHTNING is blue, WATER is indigo, LIGHT is yellow, and DARK is violet."

"So those strands are there because you have SunnyMan(500/500), RainyMan(500/500), and WindyMan(500/500) in your graveyard?"

"Yes. Now back to my card's effect. Because I have three of them in my grave, its third effect is resolved, which means I get to draw until I hold 5 cards" which he promptly did.

The champion took only a second to formulate his move.

"With no cards to defend you beside your dragon, you're in a pretty vulnerable condition dude... Now I activate my Luna-R-Tic spell card! To activate it, I must send LunarMan(500/500) to the grave from either my hand or deck"

Masuchi slid one of the newly drawn cards into his graveyard pile. Then an image of the moon appeared in front of Seiyaryu.

The majestic pink dragon began to flock about in a frenzy. Its eyes showed anger, fear, and shock, all at once.

"What's happening to my monster?" The elder man questioned fearful. Instinctively, he also took a couple steps back, and crossed his arms in a defensive manner.

"Simple. Luna-R-Tic messes with a monster's mind to the point that it wishes to attack its master, even though it loses points equal to its level x200."

And true to his words, Seiyaryu flew to Masuchi's side of the field. Because it was level 7, the dragon's attack points dropped to 2100.

"This duel is over dude. Attack!"

* * *

Nizone watched the duel's climactic ended with delight.

"Aha! Masuchi won his duel, just like predicted! Now pay me!"

Misui just stared at the spiky brunette crossly. "Fine" she stated simply as she handed the boy a solid 50 dollar bill.

Ryouu stared at the duo with a coy frown on his face. "Ya know, they say gambling is an evil sport" .

While Nizone was busy holding his money to the light so as to make sure it wasn't counterfeit, Misui turned to face the silverette, a peeved look on her otherwise pleasant face.

"What… Did you say?"

"Nothing" the boy whimpered as he hid behind his chair for safety.

After watching the exchange with amusement, Nizone's expression hardened into a much stonier one.

"So guys, Nazonei's match again Keiko should be starting soon."

This in turn caused both Ra Yellows to face the brunette.

"Do you think we should go check it out now?"

Nizone merely nodded in confirmation.

"Well, let's go!"

* * *

Out in the courtyard, two women were facing each other. One was clad in a red blazer, symbolic of her Slifer Red status. She stared at her opponent with fierce crystal blue orbs. A small bang of her raven black hair slightly covered her right eye. She had a very powerful scowl on her face, highlighting the intensity of the upcoming battle.

Her opponent on the other hand was nearly the exact opposite. Though she wore a similar blazer, hers was blue, and more elaborate in nature and also more form-fitting. Her eyes were much paler than the crystal blue of her adversaries, so much so that it was almost completely white. As unatural as it seemed, her eyes seemed to even lack a pupil. And unlike her opponent, her strawberry blond hair kept far from her face. Instead, it fluttered in the breeze. She gave a chipper smile to her opponent, as the both activated their Academy designed duel disks.

By this time, a crowd of students gathered around the duelists in a circular mob-like fashion.

Chants for either duelist's name could be vaguely heard over tumult of the crowd.

Keiko's frowned deepened as she glared at Nazonei. "That stupid smile you have on your face, it's annoying."

This statement caused the strawberry blond to point in mock anger. "Well, maybe someone as angry as you doesn't understand, but to the rest of the world, smiles are friendly gesture!"

Having heard enough, Keiko quickly activated her duel disk.

Before Nazonei even had time to catch up, Keiko had already drawn her starting 5 card hand. The life point counters appeared over-head, set to the familiar tune of 4000 apiece.

The crowd began to murmur at the Slifer's attempt to speed up the match. Her anger was evident, but it only served to increase the excitement of the upcoming match. It was at that moment that the trio showed up. Nizone stared intently at his twin as she drew her beginning five cards.

"This is so exciting! I Bet you Nazonei wipes the floor with that girl!" Misui chanted aloud, passing a cocky grin to her best friend.

Keiko merely scuffed at the comment as she brushed a rogue bang from her face. "As if this Blue lollipop could ever beat me. She might be able to beat her brother with that overly friendly smile of hers, but I'm an entirely different league of duelist!"

"Stop trying to act like you're so superior! Yeah, my sister might have beaten me, but it was a close match. And you give Slifers a bad name. While you try to act like you're all high-and-mighty, you should remember that you lost your entrance exam, so you shouldn't even be here!"

Keiko showed no outward response. Instead she merely drew her 6th card, signifying the beginning of the duel.

Her crystal blue eyes surveyed her opening hand for a moment, trying to decide on a proper move. "Well" she began, holding up a single card, "I'll just start slow. I'll set one monster in defense mode and end my turn."

And as she set the facedown card on her duel disk, a holographic image appeared in front of her to display the card.

Nazonei just smiled aggresively as she drew her sixth card. Having already checked out her hand the previous turn, the strawberry blond was quick to make her move.

"Alright Keiko, you better get ready 'cuz I'm not holding back! I'm summoning one of my favorite monsters: Lil' Windblade Glider!"

And as Nazonei placed the card on her monster zone, a small boy dressed in elaborate green armor appeared, detached wings floating behind his person, and a clever smile ever present on his face (400/1500).

Keiko merely scuffed at the sight of the level 3 monster. "That weak creature holds no place in this duel!"

This statement caused a sly grin to cross Nazonei's face, a grin that Nizone was all too familiar with.

_'She's got it already...'_

"I'll supplement my monster with my favorite equip spell, Rasengan!"

And much to the dark haired duelists chagrin, the small monster held out an open palm which was quickly covered by a small ball of swirling energy.

"As you probably already know, my Rasengan can only be equipped to a Warrior type monster. When that monster attacks, the opposing monster is automatically destroyed without applying damage calculation. This works perfectly with my Windblade Glider because when he destroys a monster in battle, you have to discard a card from your hand for every level of the destroyed monster!"

Keiko was so mad, she almost spat. Almost.

Then Nazonei cocked her fist forward in a dynamic manner. "Now my Lil' Windblade Glider, show Keiko your true strength and take out her face down monster!"

The young warrior flew to Keiko's unrevealed monster in a fraction of a second. Before the Slifer girl even realized, her monster had been completely destroyed by that same ball of energy; the Rasengan!"

Nazonei's triumphant smirk was quickly erased as a small smile crept its way onto Keiko's visage, even as she discarded all the cards in her hand, save for one.

"I know how destructive your cards can be, thanks to those troublesome Rasengan cards of yours, so I decided to customize my deck just for this duel. Unfortunately for you, the new set of cards I added specialize in being sent to the graveyard!" the Keiko flicked her duel disk, so she could reveal the card that had just been sent to her graveyard pile.

It was a level 4 spellcaster monster that looked much like a peasant. He wes on his knees and praying, even as a bandit held a knife to his throat.

"That was my Brood of Phoebe (1200/1500), and when he is sent from the field to the graveyard, I can take on card with either 'Pheobe' or 'Artemis' in its name and place it on top of my deck!"

So-saying, the dark haired girl quickly ripped out a card from her deck before placing it in the aforementioned spot.

Nazonei looked on with a slightly miffed expression. "You changed up your deck just for this duel?"

Keiko stared at the for a moment, confusion evident on her face. "Yeah, duh. I saw that I could gain an advantage over you, so I took it. I did what any great duelist would do."

"Wrong." The strawberry blond quickly interjected. "That's not the way of a true duelist at all. A true duelist would face anyone at any time with the deck they always use! Not trying to loot info on their opponent to gain an unfair advantage. You basically just said that you didn't have enough confidence in your deck, and in yourself, to believe that you would be able to defeat me."

Keiko's scowl had once again returned, this time even more defined than when the duel started. "Don't give me that crap. Next you'll start about the Heart of The Cards and other sentimental dribble. Well listen here lollipop, the only thing that matters in Duel Monsters are powerful cards, and great advantages!"

Nazonei shook her head determindly. "You are wrong Keiko. My dad is the strongest duelist I've ever faced. In fact, to this day, he is the only person I have never beaten."

"So what? All that proves is that you need stronger cards dummy!"

"No, you don't get it. My dad isn't strong because of his deck, he is strong because he believes in himself! I know this because of the many times I have faced him. Sometimes we even swap decks, but he still wins decisively. I've even teamed up with my brother, but to no avail. Think about it. We didn't come to this school so we could get better cards; we all came here so we could find our duelists spirit" she all but yelled this final statement.

"Pfft. Your entire philosophy is wrong. If you couldn't beat your dad, its only because of your own stupidity, not because of some 'duelist spirit.' In this duel, your cards' destruction abilities will only help me out. And I will use this advantage to destroy you and prove that power alone is the greatest weapon in ANY duel!"

Both girls stared hard at each other. The crowd stood in complete silence. No one dared to speak. Heck, it sounded as if no one even dared to breathe.

After a full minute of deadly silence, Keiko was first to break away, though now she was once again smirking.

"At any rate, one of the cards that I was forced to discard was my Summoner of the Gods (0/0). Because he was sent to the graveyard, I am now allowed to chose one 'Greek God' or 'Greek Goddess' from my deck and remove it from play!"

The crowd began to murmur in confusion as the girl took a chosen card from her deck and placed it in her back pocket.

"Why would you willingly remove Apollo from play? His effect doesn't benefit at all if he's not in the game..."

"That's true. But who ever said it was Apollo that was removed? Thanks to the new half of my deck, you have more than one God to contend with! And to finish the explanation of my monster's effect: the monster that I chose to be removed from play shall be added to my hand in three turns."

Nazonei gave off a competitive grin to her opponent. "Well, if that monster is going to make an appearance in a few turns, then I guess I should prepare my self then, right?"

And to this, the strawberry blond placed one card facedown behind her lone monster, signaling the end of her turn.

* * *

Jin stared at Kesado and Baken with a slightly peeved expression on his face. "Come on guys, we've been training relentlessly for days now! Can we please take a break? I just want to see the duel right now!"

baken grinned mischievously. "Sorry bro, but you still have a long way to go before you're ready for any breaks!"

"What! But I've already improved tremendously!"

"True," Kesado started with his ever-calm voice. "Your dueling has gotten better, but you still have confidence issues. Even if you appear to be ok when you duel me, I can still see how your confidence wavers whenever I counter one of your moves, or even make one of my own that you didn't expect. Then your performance suffers because of it" he stared deep into the Slifers eyes to get his point. Jin could only put his head down in shame and defeat.

"If your confidence is so malleable with me, I can only imagine how unstable it would be against an unfriendly opponent. No, you still have much to improve upon.

Jin stared at the floor for nearly an entire minute, ingesting the honest words of his eldest friend.

"Fine," he muttered softly, moreso to himself than anybody else.

Then he shot his head up, revealing burning eyes of emerald. Eyes that portrayed complete determination. "Then lets do this!"

* * *

**Author's Note: Well, it looks like Keiko and Nazonei's rivalry is really heating up, no? This has now become a duel about ideology, the very belief of the game. And Jin's training is about to get much more hectic!**

**On a seperate note, I would like to apologize to all my readers for my absence, and nothing I can say would be good enough to excuse it. But I am glad to say that I AM BACK and BETTER THAN EVER!**

**I took this time out to revamp the story (as mentioned above), so I will probably be able to finish this duel within the next 3 chapters (yep, it's going to bo a looonnnggg duel folks). But that being said, I'll probably have the next chapter out some time fairly soon. **

**And one final tangent before I finish: I don't know how many people are still with the story, so I would just like to thank everyone that is still with me! I hope you guys would take the time out to leave me a review, it would mean so much to me to hear from everyone that's still with the story. I just want to hear from you guys, let an author know what you think.**

**Anyway, you guys rock! xD  
This is Rizengan01 signing out**


	12. Clash of The Titans! Pt 2

**Author's Note: hiyah! I got this one out irregularly quickly! Rizengan01 is officially back! I would've had this out sooner, but wouldn't let me upload the chapter. Anyway, I hope you enjoy!**

**This time, the duel between Keiko and Nazonei heats up as neither duelist is pulling any punches. So without further waiting, enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

**SPIRITS UNBOUND**

**Ch.12 Clash of The Titans! Pt 2**

As it stood, Nazonei and Keiko were staring eachother down. As went, Keiko had no cards on her field, and only one card in her hand. Nazonei stood as a near opposite with a 3 card hand, and her trusty Lil' Wingblade Glider (400/1500) in Atk mode, equipped with the ever troublesome Rasengan equip spell. Her supplies ended with one face down spell or trap card.

Both girls had the full 4000 life points. And as deep a hole as Keiko appeared to be in, this was surprisingly only the end of the second turn of the duel.

Keiko smiled an arrogant smile as she drew to start her turn. Turning her crysyal blue eyes, she stared at the drawn card for several moments. It was the same card she placed on the top of her deck due to Brood of Phoebe's effect.

_'Well, I may only have two cards to work with, but I think this next move will only work out for the better.' _"I'll simply set one monster and one spell or trap card face down. Since I have no more cards, I can do nothing else."

Nazonei wasted no time in drawing her next card. "I was sure you'd try to destroy my Glider with that card before his Rasengan could cause anymore damage to you," she started, a deceitful smile on her otherwise pleasant face. "But since you didn't, I'm going to make you pay!"

Without even needing the command, the Lil' Wingblade Glider charged at the facedown monster, Rasengan cocked back and fully prepared to destroy the hidden monster.

But before the impact could take place, Keiko spoke up. "Sorry lollipop, but the card I added to my hand wasn't that monster, it was my facedown trap card, Punishment of Artemis!"

Nazonei stared on with a mortified expression. The next thing she knew, her small warrior was impaled by a bow that seemed to appear out of nowhere. The small creature was too injuring to finish its assault, but it still managed to return to its place on Nazonei's field (atk/def: 0).

"What did you do to my monster?"

"Relax," Keiko started nonchalantly as she brushed a loose bang out of her face. "Artemis saw that your monster was trying to harm mine, so she decided to punish it. In layman's term, your attack was negated, and your monster's stats were reduced to nothing. Lucky for you, your monster can no longer be destroyed in battle. Be grateful..."

Nazonei stared hard at her Slifer red opponent, but said nothing. She stared at the cards in her hand for a moment. _'Humph, there isn't much I can do right now.'_ Then she passed a quick glance at her facedown card. _'Maybe I'll have a better move next turn...'_ "I end my turn Keiko. Do your worst!"

Keiko grinned at the strawberry blond's challenge. She promptly ripped the top card off her deck before adding it to her hand, the force of said draw causing a few strands of hair to fly forward.

"Next turn my Summoner of the Gods' effect will resolve, so you've got one more turn to prepare yourself, then you truly will see my worst! But until then, I shall merely flip summon my monster."

The facedown brown backed card quickly flipped over, revealing a small wooden glider. The glider seemed to be old and slightly worn out, but overall very sturdy.

"Meet my Glider of Apollo (0/1000)!"

Nazonei stared at the glider warily. "That's the same monster you used against the Kaiser in your entrance exam!"

"Indeed. Since you're so familiar with my little glider, I'll assume you remember its effect. But just in case you've forgotten, I'll remind you. When its successfully flip summoned, it allows me to special summon one of Apollo's friends from my hand!"

And without another word, a small man appeared on the field. He was about the size of a small child, and wielded a hammer. Judging by the dirt that covered the man, and the bluntness of the hammer, one could easily assume that he'd at least participated in hardware activities.

"This is Apollo's Assistant (100/100)!"

Nazonei frowned slightly as she realized this newly summoned monster had enough force to destroy her Lil' Wingblade Glider.

"Aww, don't frown now lollipop, the fun is only just beginning! Now my Assistant, send that flying freak to the graveyard!"

The dirty blacksmith charged at the terrified Wingblade Glider, covering the distance in a matter of seconds. It slammed its hammer on the opposing monster, causing it to burst in a poof of smoke...

but out of the smoke, another Lil' Wingblade Glider flew threw the air and slammed its powerful rasengan inhanced fist slammed into the small blacksmith, sending him flying back to Keiko's field before he was completely destroyed.

Keiko looked completely disgusted at what had just taken place. "That face down card of yours was Rasengan Barrage, wasn't it?"

"Yep!"

Then a small grin spread across keiko's face. "Nothing I didn't expect. At any rate, one of the cards in my graveyard is my Hopeless Prayer (0/500) monster card, anf by removing her from play, I am allowed to draw the top two cards from my deck.

And like so many times now, Keiko ripped off the cards from her deck, giving them a quick glance before making her move. "I'll merely set one card face down to end my turn. Oh, and since the final card in my hand is Twilight Renewal, I can discard it to replenish my hand."

True to her words, Keiko ditched the final card in her hand, replacing with five more.

Wordlessly, Nazonei drew to start her turn. "Honestly Keiko, I expected a more impressive move. If you want your terrible god to arrive next turn, you'll have to do much better than that."

Keiko merely shrugged. "I did what I could with what I have. Besides, with my facedown and the cards I hold in my hand, there's hardly anything you can do to stop me!"

The Obelisk blue adversary grinned as she silently accepted the challenge before returning her attention to the newly drawn card. _'This is exactly who I wanted to see!'_

"Maybe you've forgotten, but when my Glider destroys your monster, you'll be forced to discard nerely your entire hand! But that's going to have to wait. First, I'll summon my Sylph Warrior (1000/1000)!"

Right in front of the strawberry blond, next to the Wingblade Glider, appeared a standard warrior. It wore rusted armor and was equipped with various weapons.

But no sooner did he appear than a horse showed up, wearing the same familiar type of rusted armor. The Warrior quickly leapt into the air, landing atop the horse, and empowering himself (1500/1000).

Nazonei smiled cheekily at her opponent as she prepared her explanation. "When he is successfully summoned to the field, my Sylph Warrior allows me to special summon his trusty Sylph Steed (500/500) from my hand."

Then she mimicked Keiko's action by wiping an imaginary bang from the front of her face. "My Sylph Steed is a union monster, and when it equips to my Warrior, it increases his attack points and protects him from target effects!"

Keiko merely stared on with a bored expression on her face. It was evident that she remembered this monster from the duel with Nizone that took place one week prior.

"Now I'll be able to clear your field AND deal some major damage to you! But I'm not quite ready to mount my attack just yet. There's one more move I have to make..."

Then she slammed one of the few remaining cards from her hand onto the duel disk. It was a continuous magic card, its image depicted a scruffy looking blonde in a bizarre orange jumpsuite wielding the rasengan. Behind him stood a stightly older figure. He had the same spiky yellow hair and zibrant blue eyes, but his face also depicted wisdom that far surpassed his age. Next to him stood an even taller, and older man with similar spiky hair; though his was much longer, and white in color.

"This might be my favorite spell card. Its known as Legacy of Rasengan, and has quite a powerful effect. Whenever a monster with Rasengan equipped to it is destroyed and sent to the graveyard, I can take that Rasengan and equipped it to a different warrior monster on my field. If there are none, then I can place the Rasengan back into my hand instead of in the graveyard. And, if a monster equipped with Rasengan destroys another monster in battle, I get to draw one card!"

"What?" Keiko bellowed angrily. "There is no way a card could be that blatantly powerful! there has to be a drawback."

"Well now that you mention it, I do have to pay 400 life points during my standby phase to keep it active. But I don't think that's a very high price to pay to keep the power of Rasengan alive."

"Fine you little twerp. It doesn't matter anyway. Now finish your turn already."

"With pleasure," Nazonei smiled. "Now my Wingblade Glider, destroy that other Glider and pave the road to her life points!

For the umpteenth time this duel, Lil' Winglbade Glider flew at the opposing glider with blinding speak. It shoved its Rasengan directly forward, but mere moments before the impact, and invisible barrier erected, stopping the attack and sending the warrior back to his spot on the field.

"My Negate Attack stops your attack and ends your battle phase. Anything else you want to try?"

Nazonei just grinned at her opponent. "Looks like you were able to stop me after all. Nice job! Unfortunately I dont have much else I can do, so I'll just end my turn. Show me what your god can do."

"Not many people would wish to face the powers that my Greek Gods possess; you truly are an odd one Lollipop" Keiko spoke, even as she drew to start her turn.

Then she reached in her back pocket and retreived the card she placed there few turns ago due to her Summoner's effect.

"Before I can summon my monster, I'll need three sacrifices, so..." Quickly, she placed one of the seven cards she held in her hand onto the duel disk.

"By activating my Phalanx Rising spell card, I can revive one monster in my graveyard, but its atk and def points are reversed, not that it really matters."

Moments later, Apollo's Assistant(100/100) returned to the field, a faint orange light surrounding him.

"Because my monster was successfully summoned, I can special another of Apollo's friends to the friend from my hand!"

Then another monster appeared on the field. Similar to the Glider only two spaces away, this one was more of a seat than a monster. It appeared to be an empty chariot carrying the sun in its rear.

"Say hello to Apollo's Chariot (0/2000)! But you won't have much time to get introduced, because now I sacrifice all of my monsters to summon the powerful Greek Goddess: Artemis!"

Nazonei stared in shock as the three monsters all slammed together to form a new creature. The new god finally arrived to the field. It was a very tall and elegant blond haired woman. She wore a sparkling toga that made her seem all the more elegant and surreal. Being such a powerful monster as she was, she towered over all other monsters that had been summoned thus far (2500/2000).

Nazonei bit her lip as she inwardly chastized herself. _'I was expecting Apollo; now I have to face a monster I know nothing about!'_

And unfortunately for you, I can special summon her faithful comrades from either my hand or deck now that she has been summoned! Arise my Holy Deer (500/0) from my hand, and Holy Cypress (0/500) from my deck!"

Then, next to Artemis rose to fairly large monsters. One was an impressive looking deer that glowed with a feint holy light. It took an offensive stance, signifying its attack position. On the opposite side of the holy monster appeared a long thin shrub. Much like the deer, this monster glowrd with feint holy light. Unlike the deer though, this monster took a defense position, though it was impossible to tell.

"And what do those monster do?"

"Tch," Keiko clicked her tongue in a mocking manner. "Now now Lollipop, you'll just have to find out in due time."

Then the Red passed one more look over her hand. quickly spotting the card she'd just drawn, her eyes shot opened with realization.

"I think I figured out a way to get rid of your Rasengan without it returning from your Legacy spell card. From what you said, your card will only work if the monster Rasengan is equipped to is destroy... but what happens if I only destroy the Rasengan?"

As if to emphasize her point, she flipped over her newly drawn card, reveal the ever popular Heavy Storm spell card!

Nazonei looked horrified as the strong gust of wind blew Lil' Wingblade Glider over, causing him to dispell his Rasengan. The Sylph Warrior (1000/1000) was also left without his noble steed as its effect caused it to be considered an equip spell.

"Now I'll have my Artemis rid the field of that pathetic warrior, and my Holy Deer destroy that oh-so-annoying Glider!"

Artemis gracefully lifted her hands, and moments later, a loaded bow made of magical energy appear within her grasp. Wasting no time, she quickly shot the ethereal arrow at the warrior. As the arrow pierced his heart, he groaned in pain before shattering into pixels.

At the same moment, the Holy deer rammed hard into Glider, sending soaring through the sky before following in his predecessor's footsteps and bursting into a shower of pixels.

Keiko vaguely smiled at the thought that the Sylph Warrior was now the predecessor when Nazonei had intended for him to be the successor of the Rasengan. She was snapped out of her amusement when she noting that Nazonei only lost 100 life points when she clearly took 1600 points of damage (N: 3900).

"Umm..."

"Before you say anything, I discarded the Kuriboh that was in my hand to negate the battle damage I would've taken from your Greek God."

"Very good," Keiko started. "But I was still the first to inflict damage in this duel. Soon I'll wipe out the rest of your life points. Then they'll have to place in Obelisk Blue where I belong!"

"Oh, do you really feel that's where you belong?"

Keiko jumped at the deep voice, and quickly turned around to view the speaker. Her surprised rised even moreso when she saw who it was; none other than the Chancellor of the academy.

"Chancellor Yuki! I... I..."

"Oh no need to explain dear child! I understand that you feel you should be in Obelisk Blue, then all you have to do is win this duel!"

Keiko's crystal blue eyes lit up with this new. "Thank you Chancellor!"

"Don't thank me, just fight your hardest! Haha"

The girl turned her attention back to her pearl eyed opponent. "I end my turn lollipop. If you aren't careful, I may just end this whole duel next turn."

Nazonei stared at her deck for a moment, worry evident in her eyes. _'I know I can beat her, I just need the right card...'_

Wordlessly, she drew her next card. Then her life points dropped to 3500 by the effect of her Legacy of Rasengan spell card.

'Damn, I don't need this right now...' "I'll set one monster face down and end my turn. Try not to hurt me," the strawberry winked.

Keiko scowled as she drew her top card. "I have my Greek God out, and her faithful servant, and you try to defend with a single monster? I'm insulted! Artemis, destroy that monster and pave the way to her life points!"

Once more, the majestic woman fired off an ethereal arrow, penetrating the face down card. When it flipped face up, it revealed a semi-mechanical smiling ball before being shattered.

"That was my Morphing Jar (700/600)! Now sense you flipped it, we both ditch our hands and draw 5 more cards!"

Keiko merely shrugged as she complied with the monster's effect. Nazonei on the other hand smiled hard.

"One of the cards I discarded was Badger-Mole Technician (800/500), and when its sent to the graveyard, I can take one equip spell from my deck and add it to my hand!"

Keiko frowned hard. "Just when I thought I got rid of that annoying card... At any rate, you're wide opened. Holy Deer, attack this blue lollipop directly!"

The deer charged at Nazonei, shoving its head deep in her gut and sending her backward. Her life points promptly dropped to an even 3000.

Nazonei stood up wearily, clutching her stomach to ease the pain.

"I guess now would be about as good a time as any to reveal my Deer's special ability: whenever it deals direct damage to your life points, I can place a counter on it. By removing a counter from it, I can prevent the destruction of either itself, Holy Cypress, or Artemis!"

"That doesn't scare me! Do you end your turn?"

"I do," keiko uttered nonchalantly, crossing her arms for emphasis.

Nazonei drew her next card with renewed vigor, increasing her hand count to 6. "I can finally mount my counter attack! I'll summon my Strike Ninja in attack mode (1700/1200)!"

Everyone stared wide-eyed at the unusual play, but no one was more surprised that her twin brother Nizone. He couldn't believe that his sister had just summoned a warrior monster that wasn't of the WIND attribute.

_'What could she be planning?'_

Keiko too stared on cautiously. "I'm surprised that there is more than just WIND warriors in your deck. Maybe you made a few changes in anticipation to this duel too?"

Nazonei shook her head, all the while giving off a friendly smile. "Nope. I just have special plans for certain cards in my deck." Then her expression hardened. "Now Strike Ninja, attack that Holy Deer with Shadow Shuriken Barrage!"

The black clad ninja unloaded a massive flurry of large ninja stars as the unsuspecting deer. But moments before its destruction, it strengthened the glow around it, causing it to survive the painful experience.

"I may not have been able to destroy your monster, but I was able to deal an impressive amount of damage!"

But to this statement, Keiko merely smirked with satisfaction, even as her life points dropped to 2800. "You've fallen into my trap! You see, when either my Holy Deer, my Cypress, or Artemis are dealt damage but aren't destroyed, it triggers my Cypress' special ability. It takes the damage that was dealt to my life points, and adds to the attacked monster's attack point! But that's not all; it also places a counter on my Cypress. And when Cypress is destroyed, I gain 800 life points for every counter it was equipped with!"

As if to emphasize her point, the Holy Deer began to shine brighter as its attack points increased by 1200, making it even with Strike Ninja's own 1700.

Nazonei cringed. "Combined with those two monsters' effects, your monsters will be immune to destruction, and will get stronger with every battle!"

Keiko nodded smuggly.

But then Nizone return her own smug grin. "I hadn't planned on that, but it won't stop me! I'll set two cards face down and end my turn."

Keiko passed a glance at the card she drawn. "I'll have my beautiful Artemis rid the field of your Strike Ninja!"

For the third time this duel, the mighty woman fired an ethereal arrow at the black clad ninja. But just before the arrow could pierce his heart, he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Artemis looked around in a panick, not realizing her opponent had rematerialized behind her faithful deer companion. He swiftly grabbed onto its waste before poofing away once more, taking it with him this time.

Keiko glared at Nazonei while practically beeming with anger.

"Chill Keiko, I merely activated my two face down cards. The first one is my continuous trap card DNA Transplant , which changes all monsters' attribute to WIND. The second one was my Spiritual Wind Art - Miyabi, and by sacrificing my WIND element Strike Ninja, I sent your precious Deer to the bottom of your deck!"

"You know lollipop, I don't say this often, but I am truly impressed. You managed to get rid of my Holy Deer while simultaneously removing my god's target, effectively avoiding her attack. And since you still have that troublesome Rasengan in your hand, you'll be able destroy my monster."

Nazonei merely nodded in confirmation.

"Fine. I'll just set one card to end my turn."

Nazonei quickly drew her card to start her turn, her life points quickly dropping by the effect of her Legacy spell card (N: 2600). "This is where the duel gets fun! I'll summon my trusty HurriKid in attack mode!"

Keiko stared on idly as a new monster appeared. She frowned at home much it appeared to be an average teen, only surrounded by spiralling wind (1600/1300)

"Keiko, this has been a wonderful duel, but you have been in control for far too long! Now I shall take control!"

The raven haired Slifer Red almost burst out in laughter at the strawberry's declaration. There was no way Nazonei was about to take control of this duel!

But by contrast, Chancellor Yuki grinned at the girl's enthusiasm. He started up a flame deep within his soul, something intense that he hadn't felt in many a year; his duelist spirit! He missed all the fun duels he had, and seeing this girl's will to never give up reminded him of that. Reminded him of why he came to this marvelous academy in the first place. His eyes twinkled in excitement. "Look out Ms. Keiko, it would appear that this duel isn't over yet!"

Keiko's eyes hardened at the chancellor's words. "Make your move Lollipop..."

"Gladly! As you were probably expecting, I'll equip my HurriKid with Rasengan!"

The swirling winds that spiralled around the young duel monster began to gather in his hand. Soon enough. He was holding the familiar mass of spiraling energy. But then the spiralling ball changed dramatically; from within the center sprouted four wisps of wind, giving it the appearance of a giant blue ninja star.

"But I bet you weren't expecting this Keiko. By activating my Elemental Empowerment spell card, I can power up my Rasengan into the Rasen-Shuriken!"

To this, she took the Rasengan that was equipped to her HurriKid and returned it to her deck. Not a moment later, the Rasen_Shuriken popped out of her deck. She promptly equipped it to her HurriKid, who's attack points shot up to an unstoppable 3000!

Keiko eyes bulged imensely.

"When this is successfully equipped to a monster, that monster's original attack points become 3000. But that's not all, it also gives the equipped monster the ability to attack all of your monsters at one, and deal piercing damage!" Then Nazonei rubbed the bridge of her nose with her index finger triumphantly.

"Now by removing another copy of HurriKid in my deck from play, I can increase his attack points by 1000 for the remainder of the turn!"

The Slifer Red representative was almost paralyzed as she tried to run the damage calculations through her head, even as the small boy seemed to power up, yelling all the while to show his dramatic increase in strength (4000/1300)!

"If he destroys my Artemis, then I'll take 1500 points of damage! And if he take out Cypress, that'll be 3500 points of damage, more than enough to end this duel..." she realized.

Nazonei grinned one last time as she shot her fist forward victoriously. Moments later, her monster was mimicking her actions, slamming its empowered fist into Keiko's side of the field and engulfing both her monster in a gigantic spiral of pure force.

The attack continued for several minutes before relenting, and slowly fading away. But when the wind cleared, Keiko's Cypress was still on the field, though her life points were now at a low 1300.

"Damn it... That was, too close..." She choked out as she panted heavily. "I used my face down Shock Buffer trap card to prevent Cypress' destruction, and allow me the ability to draw a card."

Nazonei smiled at her, not at all wavered by the fact that her opponent survived the incredible attack, which had enough sheer force to match an Egyptian God monster.

"I figured that face down card would save you. I'll merely set one final card face down to end my turn. Now tell me Keiko, what can you do without your Greek God to protect you?"

"Fool," Keiko uttered, giving Nazonei the darkest glare she could muster. It had the desired effect, as she could see Nazonei visibly shiver. Though unknown to her, the dark glare also gave the Chancellor the chills. _'Something about that girl is really... Dark. I've gotta help her work on that while she is here...'_

"Didn't you realize it? I used my trap to protect Cypress and _not_ Aremis. If I would've let Cypress be destroyed instead, it woulde've granted me 800 life points, so I would've survived the attack and kept my Artemis."

Then... why didn't you? I don't understand..."

"Of course you don't. My Artemis has more effects than just to summon her companions. One of her powers kicks in when she is destroyed. During the end phase of that turn, I can summon my Greek God: Apollo (2500/2000) without being hindered by his summoning conditions!"

Much to Nazonei's chagrin, the mighty warrior appeared on the field, glowing a vibrant golden light as he gracefully touched down on the field. Then he looked at Nazonei and scowled angrily, as if he truly felt anger towards for the death of his beloved sister.

"I wanted to keep Artemis on the field, but the cards that I'm currently holding focus on Apollo, so  
I think it was necessary for me to win this duel. Now Nazonei-_hime_, prepare for your destruction!" she bellowed, ripping the top card from her deck.

* * *

Meanwhile, a familiar hooded figure stood outside the obelisk Blue Dorms. As he stood there, a cool breeze gusted by, wavkng his cloak.

He looked around the majestic academy. As he stared at the academy, he quickly noted that there was no one in sight. no students, no staff, no visitors; no one.

A coniving smirk spread across his masked visage. _'Most of these people are out watching that duel. Now is my chance to make my move without being discovered.'_

His grin only widened at this thought. Balling up a fist, his shadow expanded. Then it slowly transformed. Soon it beheld the shape of a dragon. _'I will find all the powerful duelists on the island. And they WILL join me, one way or another...'_

With that, he turned off, and walked deep into the forest, disappearing from view completely.

* * *

**Author's note: Looks like Nazonei and Keiko are have one heated duel, right? Well, it gets even more intense next chapter, the conclusion!**

**And on a seperate note, I only received 2 reviews from last chapter. I'd like to that you Hikari Helion And PatAttack for your sticking with me and my story! It means so much to an author to get a review. I hope you other readers will take a minute out of your life to leave me a review and let me know what you think...**

**This is Rizengan01 signing out!**


	13. Clash of The Titans! Pt 3

**Author's Note: Here's chapter 13. Enjoy**

* * *

**SPIRITS UNBOUND**

**Ch.13 Clash of The Titans! Pt 3**

Nazonei stared on excitedly as Keiko fiercly ripped the top card off her deck. The strawberry blond knew she should've been worried of the high possibility that she would lose the duel, but she wasn't. No, she was not at all worried about her possible upcoming defeat; this duel was just too fun for her to worry.

Keiko had proved to be a far more powerful opponent than Nazonei had ever expected, so the chance to face a powerful opponent had adrenaline pumping all throughout the young girls body. The fact that her victory wasn't assured did not exactly chill her nerves. She took a deep breath, geniune smile gracing her face.

_'This moment right here, this is what I duel for... It is what I strive for... It is why I came to Duel Academy in the first place! And... It is how I know I am alive!'_

"I don't know what you're smiling about Lollipop, but my next move will be sure to wipe that smile clean off your face."

So saying, she slammed one of the many cards she held onto the duel disk.

Quickly, Apollo was enveloped in a curtain of white light that began to spiral around him. Curiously though, the light seemed to be originating from Keiko's own person.

"This is my equip spell card Magnum Aura! When its equipped to a monster, I can donate as much as 1500 life points to increase my monster's attack points by the same amount!"

Chancellor Yuki smiled brightly at the young girl's move, a look that opposed Nazonei's own confused one.

"If I recall correctly, when you faced off against Kesado, you said that you Apollo negated any life point damage you would take from your own card effects, right?"

Keiko nodded wordlessly at the Chancellor's remark, stone cold eyes still glued to her opponent. "Then that is a very good card for you. Not only does it give your monster a significant boost, but you suffer no loss of life points!"

This caused the Slifer student to grin. "Thank you Chancellor. And it is this type of strategy that will help me get into Obelisk Blue where I belong." Then she turned her attention back to her Obelisk Blue adversary.

"Did you hear that Lollipop? I will defeat you! Even the chancellor wants me to! I will prove that I am better than you; better than Kesado; better than everyone else!" Keiko panted in excitement, her face flushed and red. This exclamation held more emotion than anything she said previously, causing Nazonei to stare wordlessly, mouth agape.

Chancellor Yuki merely chuckling, scratching the back of his head nervously. _'I didn't exactly say that, but okay...'_

"Well..." was all Nazonei could muster.

"No, it's not the time for talk anymore. Apollo, attack!" With that, the mighty God pulled his fist back to his side. The aura was radiating from his body promptly began to build up within said apendage. Before long, the light was the size of a volleyball.

Wasting no time, the mighty warrior lept high into the air. Nazonei and HurriKid stared at the airborne monster with aprehension, fully aware that this would not end well for them.

Then, without warning, the flying God came crashing down. The impact was incredible. Debris was strewn all about as the flying God smashed into the terrified wind apparition, destroying him instantly. The resulting shockwaves were forceful enough to blow the crowd almost completely off their feet.

Nazonei, being closer to the impact than all others, was blown onto her derriere. Wincing at her monster's destruction, her life points took a nose dive, stopping at a low 1600.

Nizone turned to his companions, worry obvious in his otherwise pleasant green eyes. "You guess don't think she'll actually lose do you?"

Both Ryouu and Misui confidently shook their head. Kairi on the other hand voiced her opposing opinion. "Well, she is in a tight spot. One more attack like that and this duel will be over..."

Nizone gasped, but said nothing. Instead, he returned his attention to his sister, watching as she warrily stood up and dusted herself off. "Get it together Sis! You're not allowed to lose to anyone except me, remember that!"

Nazonei smiled at her brother, fire clear in her eyes. "Don't worry Zoo-Zoo, I don't have any plans to lose to her or anyone else!"

With that, she ripped the off her deck. Keiko stared at the girl with a look of utter astonishment. She couldn't believe what her eyes were seeing. It appeared that spiraling green winds were whipping around her Obelisk adversary.

_'This is impossible!'_ she mentally scolded herself. _'But... This is the same thing I saw from Kesado before he summoned that damn Shadow of Doom. But this girl couldn't possibly summon anything like that... Could she?'_

The spirals of wind, at least in Keiko's eyes, began to spiral around even faster, and with greater force. Keiko began to visibly sweat. _'Dammit...'_

* * *

Not so far away, the hooded field briefly stopped his walk. He turned his head towards the direction of the current duel. "That's some power I'm sensing over there. I guess I should pay special attention to that girl..." he said to himself in a very gruff manner.

Then he sneered slightly. "Just thinking that there are such powerful people here, its enough to get me all worked up!" He admitted.

Not a moment later did his shadow take the familiar shape of the dragon he was so accustomed to.

He promptly continued his walk, continuing the one-way conversation within his mind. _'Finding powerful duelist; that's why I have to do this...'_

* * *

Nazonei's pale pearl colored eyes stared at the drawn card for several seconds. Soon enough, a smile spread across her pretty ivory face, even as her Legacy of Rasengan spell card sapped more of her life points (NLP: 1200).

Then she passed a glare at Keiko. "You already know that my deck revolves around my Rasengan," Keiko nodded wordlessly, eyes cut into warry slits. "Well, there is also one specific monster that goes with it. And fortunately for me, I've just drawn that card."

"Well? Are you just going to talk, or are you going to make your move?"

"How is this? I activate the spell card Double Summon! By this card's effect, I can perform two normal summons this turn. But that is only the icing one the cake; I'll also use the magic of Monster Reborn to my fallen HurriKid."

Suddenly, a bright shower of pixels exploded across the field, revealing the previously slain warrior now standing tall (atk: 1600).

"Next I'll use my first summon to bring out my Chibi Knight (Atk & Def: 700)."

She quickly slammed the card onto her duel disk, causing a new monster to appear in a burst of light. The monster that appeared was small, very small. It appeared to be a small pink-skinned child wearing scant battle armor, and also covered in some cerulean blue animal pelt. Upon closer inspection, the animal vaguely resembled an over-sized cartoon hedgehog.

"But neither of these monster's will be here for long because I'm sacrificing them to summon my Child of Destiny (1000/2000)!"

Beads of sweat began to form across Keiko's brow as she watched the opposing monsters burst into showers of light. The small particles of light combined and took form. Soon enough, a new warrior began to vacate the place on the field.

_'Here it comes...' _Keiko sweated.

Once formed, everyone took in the new monster's appearance. He was a small child, probably a pre-teen in age. He had spiky blond hair and bright cerulean eyes, along with curious wisker-like markings on his reddish cheeks. He wore an orange flack jacket with a red spiral on the back of it. Once fully summoned, he gave off an arrogant smirk at the opposing Greek God.

"Hey _teme_, I'm gonna kick your ass!" The monster called out to the opposing Greek warrior, much to the comedic relief of the student audience.

Chancellor Yuki nearly fell over at the monster's dialogue. _'Maybe Bastion overdid the VisionBurst system, just a little...'_

Keiko had to force down the urge to burst into a fit of laughter at the monster's bold declaration. "That was an incredibly foolish move Lollipop, your monster is far too weak to even come close to challenging my Apollo, let alone winning you this duel. You might as well save yourself the trouble and give up now."

"It's not always about raw power. Sometimes its inner power, and potential that makes all the difference."

"Oh? Then exactly what type of potential does this monster have? I must say, from where I'm standing, he looks incredibly unimpressive."

A smirk spread across Nazonei's visage. "My monster's special abilities kick in when he's equipped with the Rasengan or any of its variations."

Then she flipped over one of the remaining cards in her hand. It was an equip spell card that depicted the very boy that was on Nazonei's side of the field. He was lunging at some unknown pale skinned snake-like monster, a giant sized rasengan in his palm.

"I'm equipping my Child of Destiny with Oodama Rasengan. Normally it would give the equipped monster an additional 1000 atk points, and the ability to attack twice, but this triggers my Child of Destiny's first effect. Now, when he does battle with a monster equal to, or stronger than himself, that monster will automatically be destroyed (2000/2000)!"

Keiko's eyes hardened. "I take it that is supposed cover the Rasengan's biggest weakness, now that it protects your monster even when being attacked? I see..." She finished, a somber look in her crystal blue eyes.

Nazonei nodded in comfirmation. "I have really enjoyed this duel Keiko, but it's high time I ended this match! Now Child of Destiny, attack Apollo with Oodama Barrage!"

Apollo stared on at the charging opponent. His somber expression matched Keiko's own, though his was more sorrowful. He closed his eyes in acceptance just as the giant spiralling ball was shoved into his chest.

Keiko let out a small gasp as she watched her favorite monster being completely obliterated. But she did not have time for sorrow. Before long, the Child of Destiny was already on his second attack, quickly approaching her.

"Not so fast," Keiko forced out, a smirk once again apparent on her face. "Because my Apollo was removed from the field, I can special summon my Greek God: Neo Apollo, and equip him with the Magnum Aura!"

So saying, a bigger, stronger, and brighter version of Apollo appeared on the field (3000/2500). Much like the original Apollo, the Magnum Aura wrapped around his presence, increasing his attack points dramatically (4500)!

The Child of Destiny stopped his rush towards the dark haired girl. Then he changed his attention to the newly summoned monster before going back on the assault.

"You may have saved your life points, but my Child of Destiny will still destroy your monster!"

"Wrong," Keiko interjected. "You see, now I can activate Artemis' final special effect: once per turn I can prevent the destruction of a 'Greek God' or 'Goddess' on my field. My choice is obvious"

And true to her words, Artemis appeared in front of the hulking God warrior, shielding him from the colliding ball of spiralling energy.

Nazonei cringed at the Slifer girl's survival. "Honestly Keiko, I didn't think you would make it past this round; I commend you. But that doesn't mean I have any plans of losing this duel! One final set card, and that'll end my turn."

Keiko merely smirked at the other girl's praise, drawing her starting card at the same time. _'Most of the card's I'm holding are monsters. But that doesn't matter because I am about to end this duel..'_

"I only wish Artemis would've had an upgraded form. Then I wouldn't have had to sacrifice her, and my life points to get this far. But at any rate, this is my turn to take you out!"

With that lingering statement, Keiko slapped down one of the remaining cards in her hand.

"By activating my Mystical Space Typhoon, I can take out that Oodama Rasengan, and along with it, your chances of surviving this turn!"

Nazonei gasped as the gust of wind ripped apart her lone equip card, reducing Child of Destiny's attack to its original 1000 and depleting his effect.

"Now Neo Apollo, wipe out that monster and end this duel!"

Nazonei, not even glancing at the quickly approaching monster, stared straight into her opponent's crystal blue eyes.

"You know Keiko, this has been an incredible duel. If you had been anyone else, then I would've just removed my Rasen-shuriken from the graveyard to deal you 1000 points of damage and end this duel. Unfortunately though, your Apollo protects you from effect damage, and this Neo Apollo would just turn the damage back on me. I tried using my ace monster, but you easily countered it with your own. No I have no doubt that you belong in Obelisk Blue..."

For once, Keiko smiled. This was not to be confused with her smirk of superiority, or her grin of power. No, this was a genuine smile that was plastered onto her face.

Nizone turned to his friends with a look of utter disbelief. "I can't believe it, she's actually gonna lose!" Then he heard something. Something that grabbed his attention, something from his sister.

"...but, this duel isn't over, not at all! I activate my facedown Spiral Booster trap card..."

Apollo's fist was mere centimeters away from the Child of Destiny's face before the trap card finally kicked in. Just before the mighty fist smashed into him, he formed a rasengan in his hand and slammed it into the floor. The force of the blast sent him sailing far above Neo Apollo and out of harms way.

With no available target, Neo Apollo returned to his original position on the field.

"My trap card is pretty conditional. I can only activate it if Child of Destiny is the only monster on my field while you have a stronger monster on yours. By removing one rasengan based card in my graveyard from play," and here she took the Rasen-Shuriken and placed it in her back pocket, "your turn is immediately ended. As an added bonus, because my Rasen-Shuriken was removed from play without activating its own effect, no damage is inflicted, but you are still forced to add your entire graveyard back into your deck!"

The crowd cheered in a magnitudenal uproar at the impressive play. Everyone that is, except Keiko, he merely stood there with her mouth agape. In one single move, Nazonei had survived another turn, made her Neo Apollo incredibly vulnerable, and made it harder for her to win this duel. Without monster's in her grave, it would be much harder to special summon. Not only that, but most of her new monsters needed to reside in the graveyard just to use their effects.

Not being one to cry over spilled milk, Keiko merely decided to press forward in the duel. "Fine, I end my turn. Make your move!"

Nazonei quickly ripped the top card off her deck, barely giving it a glance in the process. Then her life points were once again drained (NLP: 800).

"I'll now activate my Legacy of Rasengan's final effect: by sending it to the graveyard, along with half my life points, I can add one rasengan based equip card to my hand. My choice, Moonlit Rasengan!"

Waiting a few seconds for the select card to pop out of her deck, the strawberry blond quickly took ahold of it. "I'll equip my Child of Destiny with it, which once again activates his effect!"

The Child of Destiny held his palm high into the air, quickly gathering the energy needed to form the mass of spiralling energy. But as the ball formed in his hand, the light from a holographic moon gleamed down on it, giving it an appearance more beautiful than any other rasengan seen thus far. It almost looked like a spinning pearl under the magnificant moon light.

"What does that one do?" Keiko questioned warrily. In this situation, she had nothing to protect her, so the chance of her losing the duel was incredibly high.

Nazonei grinned, opening her mouth to explain. But before she ever got, the holograms faded away.

"What the hell gives?" Nizone questioned, anger apparent in his voice. Everyone else looked on in confusion as well; none moreso that Nazonei and Keiko.

* * *

_Moments ago..._

The hooded figure stood in front of a large contraption. He could hear the whirring of the machine as it pushed to generate power all throughout the island.

_'So this is the generator?'_ He though to himself. "Pretty impressive. It's almost a shame for what I'm about to do," he said with a hidden sneer.

Then he raised up his right hand.

As if on cue, his shadow sprang to life. Much like before, the large green dragon with golden armor crawled out from the ground. It let out a small roar as if to assert its power.

The hooded figure merely gave a slight nod torwards the large machine. "Do me a favor; would you kindly destroy this tin can?" the way he said it, it was more of a demand than an actual request.

Not even a moment later, the giant beast reared its head back, gathering a large amount of energy into its maw._ 'I can't let this academy's surveilance interfere with my plans.'_

The next sound made was that of a large explosion...

* * *

Chancellor Yuki looked off into the distance, deep into the heart of the island. Other students began to murmur about how their duel disks also stopped working.

The Chancellor's eyes tightened. "I don't think it's just the duel disks that are malfunctioning; I think all the power on the island has turned off!"

The students stared at him with a look of bewilderment. It was a slight awkward moment, no one really sure of what to say. Even Keiko and Nazonei were temporarily tongue tied.

After several more moments of awkward silence, Hikari was the first to speak up. "Umm, Chancellor Yuki, how can the power be off? Doesn't the island run on its on power generator?"

The chancellor merely nodded. "It's true, we do generate our own power. But that just makes the situation even more unusual. What could've happened that would have made the generators stop working?"

"Should we go check the generator out?"

Everyone turned around to face the new voice. Upon sight, it was recognized as the Kaiser of Duel Academy: Kesado. He was accompanied with both Jin and Baken.

The Chancellor smiled at the sight of his most promising students. "I think that would be for the best. Kesado, why don't you come with me," then he turned his attention to the rest of the crowd of people that surrounded him. "I'm pretty sure that everyone in the building will be coming out in a minute to see what's going on. I'd like all of you to inform them of the situation, and wait here until we return."

Then students nodded in understanding, giving the chancellor, and Kesado, the'r cue to take off.

_'Whatever turned off the generator wasn't natural. I'm sure I felt a large power surge right before the power went out.'_

* * *

The hooded figure stared at the generator before, marveling at the large hole that now tore through it.

"That was a pretty impressive attack, if I do say so myself. But now the Chancellor is bound come check it out. I guess I should go set up my surveillance systems now that I can go around undetected."

With that he turned to face his summoned monster. "That's enough, you are dismissed."

The dark dragon monster let out one more roar before fading into its master's shadow. Then the hooded figure turned off and slowly walked off, a complacent grin on his shadowed face.

* * *

It had been 15 minutes, maybe, since the Chancellor had departed. Nizone and the gang were just lounging around, not really having anything to do.

They were only first year students. And to top it off, they were only Ra Yellows, so they didn't have much influence in the Academy. They just left it to the more experienced and higher ranked students to tend to all the confused people that were walking out of the blackened building.

"Well this sucks," Misui huffed as she slouched against a lone tree for support.

"Well at least this means we won't have class tomorrow," Nizone said slyly, a grin hard across his goofy looking face. This statement earned a small fit of laughter from his friends.

That is, except from Ryouu.

Nizone's brow furrowed as he stared at his long time friend. Ryouu had a faraway look in his eyes that didn't settle well in Nizone's stomach.

He casually walked over to the silverette, placing a hand on his shoulder when he was close enough. Ryouu visibly jumped at the surprise.

Shaking off the urge to laugh at his friend's surprise, he leaned in and spoke to his friend in a low enough voice so that the others couldn't hear him.

"What's wrong bro? You don't seem like yourself, what's up?"

Ryouu shook his head. "I'm not really sure what it is, I just got a really bad feeling right before that power went out. I felt something, something weird..."

Nizone patted him on the back. "Cheer up bro, everything is fine!"

Ryouu smiled at his friend. Though inside, he wasn't so sure. 'I wish I could believe that. But that power I felt, it was the same as when I saw that hooded figure the other night... I think there may be trouble on the horizon..."

* * *

**Author's note: Kind of an abrupt ending, but it seemed like as good a place as any. And it'll help carry on into the next chapter pretty smoothly.**

**I think the best thing about this chapter is that it leads to the actual plot of this story! Who is this mysterous figure? Why is he trying to find powerful duelists on the island? Exactly what is his agenda? And what will be the Chancellor's course of action? Find out on the next chapter of Spirits UnBound!**

**Also feel free to leave me a review, it's truly the driving force behind a writer! Two cyber cookies for everyone that leaves a review, and five for the first review xD!**

**This is Rizengan01 signing out**


	14. Intermission

**Author's note: nothing special. Everything that needs to be said is at the bottom**

**YuGiOh GX: SPIRITS UNBOUND**

* * *

Well, I just wanted to say that over the past few months, the story has kind've gotten away from me. Not that I plan on stopping or anything, but there are certain revisions that definitely need to be made. Specifically, I want to change up the order of certain events, as well as expanding on the character traits.

I really want to allow the reader to get a feel for each and every one of the characters, yet I feel like this is something I have had trouble in expressing. Also, I want to throw in some more (slightly filler) action between some of the key points that have already gone on. It may not seem like much, but I think it'll give more meat to the story and expand on the overall feel of it.

Hopefully this update won't take me very long. I expect to get it all taken care of in the next couple weeks or so (but no promises, I have a terrible habit of procrastinating, as you guys may well know). But lately, my interest in the Yu-Gi-Oh series has been reignited, so hopefully I'll have the motivation to get this all done in a timely fashion.

* * *

**Anyway, thank you guys for sticking with the story, and look forward to more to come.**

**This is Rizengan01 signing out!**


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